In Due Season
by Dr. Cat
Summary: When everything Sonic holds dear comes under attack the gang rallies together to battle an enemy they never knew they had. A continuation of One December Night.
1. Chapter 1

_**Disclaimer: I do not own any of the Sonic characters, that would be Sega and Sonic Team.  
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_**IN DUE SEASON**_

Chapter I

_Hidden Nightmares Open Doors_

**Bright lights seared his young vision while terrifying sounds pierced his small ears. He couldn't remember when or how he got there, but he knew that he was horrified by this place; he hated it. There were tall creatures, scary creatures, that he had never seen before, looming over him, poking and prodding him with all kinds of terrible things he couldn't put names to. He wanted to be safe in his mother's arms again but instead tears streamed down his cheeks, staining the laboratory table he was pinned to. All he knew was that this was painful and he needed his 'mama'. He would have cried out for her if it wasn't for the tube coming out of his mouth, the tube they forced down his throat.**

**All his wild flailing and desperate attempts for escape were met with harsh opposition as the strange beings held his tiny frame down. He heard them speaking, their passing around of bottles and tools, their bustling to and fro. The sounds caused anxiety to rise in the youngster's heart with every passing minute of this agony. His tears came out more profusely as he choked on the hunk of plastic invading his mouth. The worst was yet to come. What he would later learn to call needles was soon to become the apex of his fear as one of the creatures held one. All the trauma up to this point didn't measure up to the dreadful moment his eyes locked onto this individual's cold reflective goggles, this person was smiling.**

**Just as he was about to stick in the needle, this man, the professor, was smiling . . .**

"No!" Sonic started out of his hellish nightmare, shooting straight up in his bed with another gasp. He was gripping the sheets with his hands so tightly that his knuckles were white. With wild eyes and fast, shallow breathing, he was in a state of nothing short of terror. As his brow began gathering sweat he looked around cautiously. It took a full minute for his anxiety to subside long enough for him to realize that it was the dream again. At least he hadn't finished it this time. He glanced down at Amy, still asleep beside him, snoring softly and unaware of his fright. He quietly thanked heaven for her being such a sound sleeper. He didn't really feel like talking about this particular issue, to which he knew she would ask. He'd much rather keep the disturbing thing to himself.

Sonic laid a hand on his pounding heart as he sighed in exhaustion and frustration. This dream had been going off and on for weeks now, waking him up and bothering him for hours after. He had been troubled by nightmares like this before. When he was younger they were vivid, almost like memories, but throughout his life their intensity faded to nothing more than bad dreams. However, now it was as if the horror from his youth had come back to haunt him once more. It was taking its toll on the hedgehog and nothing showed it more than his dull eyes and drooping ears. Amy had asked him once why he looked so tired but he quickly ascribed it to another source, the baby. Though he loved his child very much, sleeping in peacefully on cold mornings like this had quickly become a thing of the past.

"Oh," the blue hedgehog breathed as he recognized the soft cries of his daughter coming from the bassinet next to their bed. "I'm sorry sweetie, did I wake you up," he said lovingly as he crawled out from under his warm comforter and tip toed over the cold wood floor to the upset little hedgehog. He figured his short scream from earlier must have startled her awake as he gently reached down and collected her in his arms. "Daddy didn't mean to scare you Kimi," he whispered, rocking her softly. He still wasn't use to holding such a small, fragile life in his hands that he was willing to give the world for. This triggered the many anxieties of fatherhood in his mind.

Was this the right thing? Did he really know what he was doing? Was this a mis . . . no. He couldn't afford to think like that, they couldn't afford that. At this moment, he just needed her to calm down and hush the cries that were stirring his own distress further. Slowly, but surely, little Kimi's crying subsided into burbling and soft breathing as she felt safe in her father's embrace. Sonic gazed down at her tiny face and melted in the awe of how much he loved his little girl. She settled comfortably in his chest and arms and, though he didn't know it, she helped the anxiety of his nightmare and fatherly inadequacies wash away.

"You got me wrapped around your little finger already, do you know that?" he smiled warmly. Kimi opened her emerald eyes and looked up intently at her father's face as he smiled at her. She in turn cooed loudly, showing a toothless grin and fidgeting a little by kicking her tiny legs and grasping with small fingers. "See, I think you do know," her father declared, nuzzling her tummy playfully with his muzzle. He decided that, sense he probably wasn't going to get much sleep tonight anyway, he might as well spend that time with his daughter.

He looked out the window of the inn they were staying in due to the loss of their home during a blizzard a few months ago. It was small but nice considering the circumstances. They had spent the last part of December with Cream and her mother, Vanilla, due to the incident with their home, but they had finally moved to the Philip's Accent Inn. It did suit them better being the couple was very independent in nature. Plus, Sonic knew that Vanilla, though very nice and patient, was happy to see the newborn baby leave her home. Now it had been about three months since the family moved into the intimate space and they were still in the process of getting a new house.

Sonic looked to the bitter cold outside, noting that the snow had ceased for the most part. He reached back into the bassinet and pulled out Kimi's comforter that Cream knitted. Shivering a bit himself, Sonic wrapped the baby in her blanket and carried her back over to his bed, his cold feet anticipating the warmth. Once in bed, he gently laid Kimi next to him and rolled over on his side, propping his head up with an arm so that he wasn't only facing Kimi but Amy as well. As he looked at the two most important people in his life he couldn't help but smile.

The blue blur wasn't prone to mushy stuff or the warm fuzzes often, but for the past months he couldn't shake them. As he placed a hand on his daughter's tummy and leaned over to rest his chin on top of his wife's head he still had trouble believing it was real. He never would have pictured this years ago. In fact, it felt like only yesterday that he claimed he'd never date let alone start a family. He even recalled a bet with Knuckles over the issue. 'I bet you fifty that you'll marry before any of us, Sonic.' Thinking it was a sucker's bet; Sonic raised the echidna double and had a deal. Five years later and a hundred rings poorer the hedgehog was indeed married before all of them and even had a kid.

Shortly after snuggling down further into the blankets, a wave of tiredness overwhelmed him causing him to yawn and his eyelids to droop.

"Man, guess I'll be gettin' a few winks after all," he said, looking down at Kimi to see that she had already nodded off. With a short chuckle and a well placed kiss on both female's heads, Sonic lapsed into dreamland. What he didn't know was that the weight of his chin resting on Amy's head was enough to slowly wake her up. Slightly agitated that her sleep was interrupted, she jerked up her own chin which caused Sonic's head to lurch to the side which in turn freaked him out.

"What? What?"

"Sonic? Oh, I'm sorry," Amy apologized groggily as she slowly sat up and stretched.

"No it's okay I was up anyway," he said without thinking.

"You were? Why?"

Even in the darkness of the room, Sonic could see the concern in her face. He didn't want to give away the real reason he was awake, but he also couldn't help but feel guilty if he lied to her.

"Well um . . ." The squirming of Kimi saved him from doing either.

"Oh, there's my baby. I see, she woke up," Amy reasoned as she collected the tiny bundle into her arms.

"Yeah, she did," Sonic assured. He wasn't lying, but he wasn't telling the whole truth. Either way, it still made him feel lousy.

"Thanks Sonic, but sweetie I think you need more rest then I do. Why don't you go back to sleep. I'll watch her."

"Thank you, don't mind if I do," Sonic yawned as Amy giggled a bit.

"Aren't you suppose to say something like 'are you sure honey'."

"Only if your response is 'of course dear, now sleep sweetheart'."

"Oh you," Amy said as she watched the blue hedgehog roll over and again drift off to sleep. Amy smiled as she turned her attention back to the violet hedgehog who was now fascinated with mommy's hand. Amy glanced at the wall clock to see that it was four-forty. Not to early being she normally got up at five-thirty, unlike her mate who would sleep till noon if she let him. Come to think about it though, it was a new habit of his; sleeping in late. Recently he had been looking tired and even started taking short naps here and there, something he didn't use to do often. She knew the new baby was an added strain, but she believed there was something he wasn't telling her.

"Do you know sweetie that your dad is high maintenance," Amy said jokingly. Kimi just burred at the sound of her mother's voice. "Don't get me wrong, I'm glad I married him, but sometimes he's a handful." The pink hedgehog decided that she might as well get an early start on the day as she stood up out of bed. She shifted Kimi to her right arm as she flicked on a small lamp on her bed stand.

The baby hedgehog was startled for just a moment by the warm glow the light provided, but was soon back to investigating her own hands. Amy smiled kindly at her cute little girl as she wiggled her feet into some pink slippers. She decided to feed her daughter since the little one was awake now anyway. Amy thought she was in for a busy morning, but as soon as she was done nursing Kimi, the little hedgehog went out like a light. Amy looked at the sleeping baby in her arms and then to the sleeping form of her husband.

"Great, guess I'm alone on the early shift huh?" She sighed, knowing full well that it wouldn't be that easy for her to go back to sleep. She quietly made her way back over to the bassinet and tucked Kimi in snugly before turning to face her dilemma. What was she going to do for the next hour? She could lie back down and try to go back to sleep, but that didn't appeal to the pink hedgehog especially now thanks to her husband who was hogging all the covers.

"I know. I'll just take a nice bath," she declared with glee as she quickly made her way over to the bathroom. It had been forever since her last hot bath, being that Vanilla's home only had one bathroom to share; not to mention her newborn baby. She was glad to have a place of her own, even if it was just an inn. As she began to gather bubbles and soaps from the cupboards her mind wandered on to her old house. Her heart ached. It was her and Sonic's dream home. The one he carried her into after getting married and almost tripping on the threshold while doing so. Amy chuckled.

Three years of marriage, the good and tough times, Christmas', birthdays, memories . . . destroyed by snow and wind. They were able to recover items from the house such as pictures, some furniture, utensils, tools and trinkets, but the house was damaged beyond repair. She told herself it was a trivial thing and she was more than thankful that her family was safe, but the day they had to tear it down, she cried. Amy sighed as she ran the hot water. Why was she thinking about such depressing things? Then again, it gave her an opportunity to think about her friends.

They had been there for the family, helping out as much as they could when they could. Amy almost laughed as she remembered Tails' offer to stay with him. He meant well and his heart was in the right place, but a workshop with only a small living space available wasn't going to suit the needs of a small family. The Rabbit family had been so kind, letting them stay. Rouge had brought over things for the new baby and Knuckles helped with the clean-up of their old home. She poured in the soap and filled the room with the smell of strawberries, something that calmed her nerves and gave her a since of familiarity. She decided that even without her 'dream house' she wasn't going to remain upset. There was no need to. What was really important survived the storm and that was a reason to celebrate, not mope.

With that she took off her night gown and slipped into the tub allowing the water to fill up almost to the top before shutting it off.

"This is the life," she breathed, leaning back and enjoying the warmth, practically purring. The peace and quiet she was enjoying lasted all about five minutes before it was shattered by the short, muffled yelps and shouts of her husband. When it registered to Amy what it was, she was out of the tub, towel draped around her and standing next to the bed side dripping in a matter of seconds.

Sonic was finishing his horrible nightmare, thrashing and rolling all over the bed. Amy didn't know what to do or what was going on. In all the years she had known him, both before and after marriage, he had never behaved in such a way.

"Sonic, Sonic!" she screamed in near hysteria, honestly frightened at how frightened he appeared to be.

"No! No! No!" he voiced as if she wasn't there and he was speaking to someone else. Kimi began crying again, jolted by all the screaming.

"Wake up Sonic," Amy insisted, grabbing him by the shoulders as best she could and shaking him roughly. This seemed to do the trick as his eyes fluttered open and his shouts and thrashing stopped in shock. For a few moments, they both remained frozen. Sonic looking disheveled and exhausted, Amy soaking wet and shivering, both scared. Sonic recovered first by bringing his hands up to encase the ones Amy had on his shoulders.

"I . . . I'm sorry . . ."

"No, what's wrong? That had to be one heck of a nightmare Sonic," Amy intervened, still shaken by the screams.

"Well I . . . ah, you're wet!" Sonic cried out as some water dripped from Amy's quills onto his chest and sank through his tan fur. The pink hedgehog apologized and quickly rose away from him.

"Let me dry off. Will you take care of Kimi?"

"Yeah sure, no problem," Sonic complied, hoping Amy would drop the incident. No such luck.

"Then you can tell me what that was all about," Amy stated, making her way back to the bathroom before he had a chance to question or protest. Sonic's features automatically shifted into a hurt scowl. He was upset with the nightmare itself now. The way it made him feel out of control, frightened and now he was going to have to at least try and explain himself to his wife. Why had he fallen back to sleep? He should have stayed awake like he always did, but then again maybe this wouldn't be so bad. He could finally talk about his problems, his fears and emotions . . . what was he thinking, of course this was bad. There had to be a way out of this.

"So stupid, what's wrong with me?" he exasperated. His thoughts were distracted by Kimi's cries for solace and for a brief moment, just a sliver of time, Sonic wanted to wail right along with her. But instead, he quickly bottled up the frustrations, fears and exhaustion and corked it tightly. He stood up out of bed and shuffled over to the crib.

As before, he scooped up the baby and rocked her, jostled her, made funny faces at her, anything to get her to stop crying. None of this worked though as Kimi insisted on driving her father crazy until she received the right comfort.

"Please Kimi, Please!" he pleaded. He caught himself becoming too discouraged and decided to take a deep breath to calm his nerves and hum an old hymn he had heard a long time ago. To his surprise, Kimi stopped bawling and allowed the deep murmur to lull her back into slumber. Sonic stopped humming and looked at her lovingly. This father business was down-right difficult sometimes, but worth it at the same time, confusing.

"Got her back to sleep?" Amy whispered from behind him, smiling as she dried her head quills with a white towel the inn provided.

"Yeah."

Sonic didn't turn to face his wife; worrying Amy as she watched him place Kimi gently back into the crib. Something was wrong and as she watched him make his way over to the window with his back still to her she knew it was serious. Knowing her husband for such a long time and on such intimate terms gave Amy the ability to not only tell something was deeply troubling him, but that it had been for some time. To someone else it was just a bad dream, end of story, but the pink hedgehog knew better. For a nightmare to even bother Sonic it had to be a pretty horrific, but for a dream to deprive him of sleep and peace of mind had to be unspeakable and that's what she was afraid of; he wouldn't speak about it.

She had long since noticed the tired look in his eyes, replacing their usual brilliant twinkle with a dull glow. She had kept quiet about it hoping he'd tell her in his own sweet time. 'Yeah Amy, don't hold your breath' she thought. She feared he wouldn't open up about it and suffer alone, preventing her help.

"Please, Sonic," She whispered, gently wrapping an arm around his waist, feeling him tense up a bit. He turned to her with a sad smile. She knew Sonic wasn't very good at sharing emotions, at least, not in the way most shared feelings and inner thoughts. Luckily, over the past years she had become accustomed to his ways, not always happy with them, but understanding. She was sure it went both ways. With a wide grin and a twinkle in her eyes she pulled away.

"Ya hungry?" she asked. Sonic quirked an eyebrow, but his smile was much brighter.

"You bet. Maybe some food will make me feel better."

Amy nodded and walked over to their small kitchen. He followed deciding to help.

"Pancakes sound good?"

"Yeah!" Sonic exclaimed as he rummaged around for two plates and silverware in the few boxes they had. Recently, they had been eating out or surviving on junk food. Sonic was real excited about eating some of Amy's pancakes, even though it would be instant batter's recipe. The pink hedgehog couldn't help but smile at her husband's joy. She was surprised though when he came up and hugged her from behind.

"Stop it Sonic. I'm trying to cook," she protested, jokingly of course.

"Oh, I just want to watch," he pouted. Amy laughed.

"From over my shoulder? Kind of difficult to do anything with you all over me?"

"Well, not anything," Sonic said mischievously. Amy huffed, but blushed all the same, before smacking him upside the head with her spatula.

"Cut it out you," she scowled, not meaning anything by it. Sonic chuckled.

"Alright, alright."

He kissed her on the cheek, letting her go. How he loved her so much. But that brought him back to his nightmare as he sat down in one of the dining chairs. Maybe he should tell her, but then he didn't want to burden her either. He watched Amy flip a few flap jacks as he thought about the disturbing dream and its reoccurrence. Was it just something he ate before bed or a vision of the future, a memory from the past or just some dumb, scary reoccurring dream? Getting lost in his reflections he didn't notice Amy had finished or that she had placed the pancakes in front of him.

"Sonic? Hello, Sonic," Amy called as she waved a fork in front of his face.

"Oh, sorry," he said sheepishly as he took the fork from her. Amy felt a bit frustrated by his attitude; that he was still not talking. She was starting to believe she would never get an answer until . . .

"Ames?"

She glanced back at her husband's features. He appeared sad and scared; not the typical 'opps I forgot our anniversary' look, but this was a distant, almost unapproachable, sorrow and dread in his eyes. He was aching inside and she could feel it. She let go of her irritation and sat down next to him.

"I love you Sonic," she said wrapping an arm around him and planting a kiss on his cheek, "It will help if you talk about it." He smiled slightly and returned the gesture of embrace.

"I know. I know," he whispered. They sat for a minute in comfortable silence, Amy knowing Sonic would eventually open up and he knowing that she was the safest person to open up to.

However, their quiet moment of intimacy was shattered by a rapid knock on the door. After getting over the initial shock of the interruption, Amy's temper flared. Who had the nerve to come bother them at such a forsaken hour? Grant it, they were already awake, but still. She was just about to get to the bottom of what has been bothering her love and someone had the gull to interfere. Sonic, sensing this turmoil, quickly reacted before things got out of hand.

"Don't worry, I'll get it, I said I'll get it!" he exclaimed as Amy had gotten up and started marching towards the door. Being Sonic the hedgehog, he got there first and pleaded with his scowling wife that it was alright. She huffed, but allowed him to answer.

As he opened the door, Amy crossed her arms and stood just behind him. To their surprise, a cold looking two-tailed fox stood smiling sheepishly.

"Tails?" Sonic blurted.

"What are you doing here and so early?" Amy asked as the good hostess in her began to win out over her temper. She pushed past her husband and pulled the poor young fox inside.

"I'm sorry to bother you guys, but I need your help with something at the workshop," Tails said as he shook his namesakes free of some snow.

"Well whatcha need help with," Sonic asked, always willing to help out. Amy sighed. 'This is just the excuse he needs to get out of talking,' she thought. But then again, if Tails really needed help . . .

"I can't get my heater to kick on and I'm not done with the furnace either."

Both Sonic and Amy stared at him.

"You can't fix it?" Amy inquired skeptically, anger cropping back up. Tails blushed and looked to Sonic. It sounded silly, him being a mechanical wizard and all, but it was the only thing he could come up with at the moment. He just needed Sonic was all. He nodded to Amy's question. She folded her arms, more than suspicious and upset. Sonic shrugged.

"Well, it's an odd invite, but sure I'll help ya," he finally said, grabbing his coat off the hook next to the door. Tails beamed, but Amy frowned. She had really wanted to know what was wrong earlier.

"But Sonic, what about your breakfast," she inquired, hoping his stomach would convince him to stay. It appeared to be working as the blue hedgehog looked back longingly at the table of hot pancakes, tummy grumbling in anticipation.

"Well . . ." he began with hesitation, glancing back over at Tails' hopeful face then to Amy's irritated features. He just couldn't win, or could he. . . "Why don't you stay for breakfast Tails, then we can head over to your place?"

"Ah, well, I guess, if that's okay with you guys," he replied, looking more to Amy for an answer on that. She had to resist the urge to roll her eyes at this. It would figure that her husband would come up with a way to make both sides 'happy' and still benefit himself. Feeling somewhat defeated, for now, she sighed and waved the two males to follow her over to the table.

There were a few moments of quiet chatter and eating before Tails and Sonic got up to leave. It was still dark outside, but the route was familiar to them and Sonic reassured Amy that he was alright now. She waved good-bye to the two companions as they made their way out into the snow. The young woman watched on from the door way for a while, tightening the robe she had on a bit for warmth.

With a light breath, she stepped back in and shut the door with a soft click. For some reason, she felt lonely. Her feet shuffled across the floor as she walked to Kimi. Her love for her daughter was very strong, but with a pang of guilt she didn't want to lose the adventure in her life. Before, she would have been able to accompany Sonic, but now someone had to stay home. They had both talked about it and came to agree on a 'case by case bases'. If she were needed, he would stay, but if he were needed, she would stay at least until Kimi was older.

With a sad smile she glanced out the window to the restarting flurry of snow.

"I think the world's gonna need you a whole lot more though, sweetheart."


	2. Chapter 2

Disclaimer: All Sonic characters are copyrighted to SEGA. This story is the ideas and thoughts of the author and not necessarily those of Sega or Sonic team.

_**IN DUE SEASON**_

Chapter II

_Faded Pasts Distance Shores_

**I was well aware that she was frightened, as was I, but for different reasons I'm sure.** **If the professor had known what I was doing I could have only imagined the punishment. If she were caught, I do not know what would have become of her, but it was she who insisted on the venture.**

**We had run through the corridors, avoiding the sounds of footfalls and brightly lit areas as best we could. Every once in a while we had to stop and hide as a late time worker put away his tools for the night or one of the residents left their quarters for a snack. **

**I didn't even know exactly why I had wanted to aid her in doing that. The professor had strongly advised me to not have any more contact with her until further notice, but there I was directly disobeying him. But in spite of the guilt, I could not help it. I was fascinated by her, curious to know more, compelled. She was like me, of my kind and so was her son, which was the object of this disobedience. I had wanted to see her and she wanted to see him.**

"Shadow, are you there?" an anxious voice emitted from the black hedgehog's wrist communicator. Shadow shook off the far-away remembrances as he was slowly brought back to the reality of his present situation. He regarded his communication device with an indifferent air, but activated it all the same. A small picture began to develop on the screen revealing a relatively upset middle-aged woman with slightly graying brown hair. The human glared at the black hedgehog that appeared on her monitor inside the home office she currently found herself in. Judging by the bags under the woman's eyes and the several papers, gadgets and empty paper cups once containing coffee surrounding her, one could tell she was exhausted and stressed.

"Shadow, we don't have much time here. We need to get that information as soon as possible. You said you could do this but it's been three days!" the woman exasperated loudly as she rubbed at her tousled hair. Shadow let out a disinterested "humph" yet nodded. Though Shadow wanted to be upset with the lady, he knew that she was just tired and that she was the only one willing to help him; plus he liked this woman's gumption and tenacity.

"You will have what you need soon Alyson," he responded coolly as he closed his eye, a sign of promise to his human partner. Alyson gave a weak sigh but nodded. She had only known the black and red hedgehog for a year now but knew when Shadow set out to do something, it would be done. In fact, she had learned a lot in the past twelve months, things she had been clueless about before. Now she was on the front lines of something important and it gave her a sense of purpose.

"Okay, Alyson out."

And with that Shadow's screen went blank as his arm went slack to his side. It was time for the matter at hand. He was currently perched in a pine tree eyeing what looked to be a fairly large rock formation about five hundred yards away; he knew better. It had taken two days just to track this place down and a day's worth of observation just to make sure his leads were right. This stone pile was indeed one of the few bases of operation that Dr. Robotnik had set up in this region and he needed to break in and retrieve what he hoped would be the end to this three year campaign. He had spent two of those three years working with G.U.N., partnering with Rouge and Omega to help bring mankind a step closer to defeating the mad doctor. It had suited him fine then being he had been a little more naive and less critical.

But time had a way of changing things or, more accurately, people. He left the government service with mixed emotions and confusion. Sometimes he felt like defending and protecting the human race Maria had been so sure of, but other days he wondered if allowing Doctor Eggman to take over wasn't such a bad idea. On those days he thought about Sonic and his friends, Alyson, Omega and Rouge . . . Rouge. There was a subject he didn't want to touch. Either way, they reminded him of why he did what he did. He would never let them know of course, but he kept fighting for their sakes.

Suddenly a few boulders near the rocky cove began to shift and Shadow perked up from his sitting position. This was his chance; he knew it, and sure enough the heavy stones moved away revealing a wide opening. Out of the blackness emerged a storm of large machinery, all bearing the mark of the Eggman Empire. Shadow studied the various types of robots coming out very carefully. Several were what the government had labeled Demolition Droids. These robots were built for their names sake; heavy, well armed, a lethal arsenal and the ability to adapt quickly usually spelt disaster for whatever poor, unsuspecting town it visited. There were some D-shells too, which were basically an eagle shaped jet mounted with rapid firing laser cannons and carrying five large omega-bombs. There were also hundreds of K-19's, which was simply a runner, able to move fast and fire faster.

Along with all that came the staple robot, which came out with almost every battle. These slow moving things seemed to just hold up the back lines after a fight. Some even said that these robots took prisoners after battles, though little evidence supported it. This was exactly what Shadow was after, evidence of disappearances.

The black hedgehog snorted in disdain at the sight before leaping from the tree and making his way over to the opening at super speeds. He needed to do this quickly if he wanted to get in undetected. However, he also knew he needed to err on the side of caution being Robotnik's tracing and security measures were always pushing the scientific possibility envelope. He got as close as possible to the entrance, waiting for the robots to clear out towards their unknown destination so he could dash in. With the skill and grace he had perfected over the years he launched himself inside and landed quietly on the metal floor below. He looked in both directions in his crouching position checking for signs of detection. He was greeted by the sound of automatic lenses coming into focus. Surveillance cameras.

He sprang into action, running full speed at the sound and ripping the camera away from the wall. The black hedgehog gazed at it with annoyance, knowing that the damage had already been done and that it wouldn't be long before a fleet of bots would come to investigate. He needed rapid results now. He dropped the camera and reached for the bare wires that now hung out of the wall. The dim lighting of the hanger he was in gave just enough for him to find what he was looking for, the feed line. He grabbed its end and without delay . . .

"Chaos Spear," he yelled as energy shot up the line. He had done this several times before and it never failed to bare the outcome he wanted. The wiring exploded in a fiery display of power right up the line, leaving behind scorch marks along the walls and a trail straight to the command center. And like a shot, he was off skating down the corridors of the immense base. Just as he figured though, robots came out of their dormant positions and launched attacks on the Ultimate Lifeform. In the past, he might have stopped, indulged in fighting back; showing them a thing or two for messing with Shadow the hedgehog, but now it was a different story. After losing his inhibitor rings, his incredible Chaos powers came at a price, exhaustion. These robots were no push over and he didn't have that kind of time or energy.

He continued to race on knowing he had to reach his objective. Eggman was becoming increasingly dangerous for both his kind and for the human race. Oddly though, no one, except for Sonic, had even seen the doctor in years, including himself. Worse yet, no one knew where he was now. It was just robot army after robot army, battle after battle with no real rational to any of it. Was the doctor still trying to form an empire or just creating acts of mass destruction with no real return? Shadow didn't bother to try and understand anymore. All he knew was that this had to come to an end, for the sake of the world. This had to stop for all their sakes.

Sirens began going off as the fast hedgehog blew through the first level of security. The flashing lights, ear piercing wails and banging metal did not break nor distract Shadow's concentration on the trail marked on the wall ahead. He blasted clean through doors that blocked his path and sailed right on through bots that tried to nab him out of the air. Like a rocket he coursed by not even thinking of slowing until he reached his destination. However, something did finally catch the speedster's eye.

Video screens that ran the lining of the facility suddenly popped on, tuning up their volume and drowning out the sirens. The lights also dimmed and for a second Shadow would have mistaken the place for being a movie theater, if it hadn't of been for the searing lasers and colossal robots chasing him. The screens scrolled a few words, words that he didn't care to look at much less read, but then a voice started up.

"Shadow the Hedgehog," it acknowledged in a fairly calm male voice. It was unmistakably Robotnik's. "The Ultimate Life Form, created on Space Colony Ark by my grandfather."

Shadow bristled noticeably but he knew he couldn't let this throw him off, not this time.

"You do remember my grandfather don't you?"

The black hedgehog narrowly escaped the claws of another robot as he rounded a corner. He sneered a bit at the causal tone and manner of the screen's speaker. He had to try and ignore it.

"Professor Gerald Robotnik? One of the most brilliant minds of all time. Not striking a chord? Ah, then what about my cousin . . ."

Shadow couldn't help but tense up. He knew he had put the past behind him. He knew this was just a distraction. He knew this part was coming up in the prerecorded message. But he hated it all the same.

"Maria, I'm sure that name is, at the very least, familiar to you."

"That's it," the hedgehog growled as he flicked his wrist in the direction of the monitor and let loose a bolt of Chaos energy. The screens around him lit up in a firework display of sparks as they over exerted their energy input. The LCD screens melted releasing smoke and hot embers of plasma to the floor. He smiled for a moment until he heard . . .

"Temper, temper."

He stiffened a little. Shadow had never heard that before. Was that madman here?

"Anyway, let's talk about you."

The hedgehog's anger flared; the recording had picked up right where it left off. It was programmed for such interruptions and only blared on much the louder. He prayed the command center was getting closer. The next few minutes were accompanied by more robots, more lock downs and more talking about his past deeds in both the heroic and dastardly. Though he would never admit it to anyone, or himself for that matter, he was growing weary of both this mission and this life. What was the point?

Finally, what looked to be exactly what he needed; a large security door stood just down the hall. It was a thick doorway made to withstand the most aggressive assaults including that of the bots behind him. Beyond that door was the master control hub. He had to time this just right or else he was going to end up quite an ugly stain on that door. Reaching into his quills, he pulled out a small device that looked similar to a hockey puck with the initials G.U.N. engraved upon its flat surface. Shadow had taken the liberty of lifting a few before leaving the government organization.

As he approached the metallic entree, he tossed the object at it. With a clang, it attached itself magnetically and began to relay a series of beeps and clicks. With that, the black hedgehog turned around sharply, using the wall as leverage and stormed back to face down his attackers. The robots reacted clumsily, trying to turn on the woodland creature in their mist. They raked their claws along the walls and themselves, firing guns and lasers at one another.

Shadow paid careful attention to the door as well as the homicidal machinery hammering at him. Suddenly, there was a flash from the device as it dropped to the ground. Shadow smiled. He doubled back once more as the metal door began to slowly lift up into the ceiling. The robots, again in their rough manner, turned around and headed after their pray. Just as the passage was halfway open, a light at the top began flashing as the control panel for the door activated security procedures.

Immediately the door began falling shut. Shadow rushed forward, dove to his stomach and snatched up the G.U.N. device as he slid safely under the hatch just before it slammed down. The assault bots charged right into the door without consideration and Shadow listened securely from the other side as they clamored and gorged at the titanium reinforcement. Without missing a beat, he placed the device back into his quills and began surveying the area. He was in a short, dimly lit hallway that lead out to a wider area. He slowly made his way down the hall, listening for any signs of danger as he went. An intercom crackled to life once he reached the edge of the large computer database room.

"I know you've put your past behind you, the good, the bad and all."

Shadow snorted in disgust. The sooner he got what he needed the sooner he could leave and not hear that stupid tape. In a flash he was at one of the screens, inserting an flash drive into the system and typing away. Seconds later he was receiving the download he required and taking out the clip.

"However Shadow, I have a question for you. What if your past catches up with you or worst yet, what if it's in front of you?"

At this, the hedgehog quirked an eyebrow. He had never hung around long enough to hear 'his' full message before. With some curiosity, he paused for a moment.

"For you dear boy, it's only a matter of . . . time."

Suddenly, the computer monitors around him began flickering to life. Each displayed a timer of red digital numbers fixed on 48:00:00. The scene seemed all too familiar to the one on the Ark eleven years ago. Shadow's first instinct was that the base was going to self-destruct now that information had been compromised. The distant sounds of the robots against the door stopped, leaving Shadow in an eerie silence as he watched the counter start. Then he sneered. It wasn't counting down precious seconds or even minutes, but hours. Shadow's blood boiled as he watched the slow display with displeasure.

He knew his presence was expected, being he was one of the protectors of this planet. It made sense for Eggman to be prepared for him or anyone for that matter. But this had an air of sinister planning to it. Dr. Robotnik had been waiting for his arrival, but how? How had the doctor known he would be here and more importantly why did that maniac want him here to begin with?

There was no time to ask any more questions as the stronghold behind him began to slowly open. He could hear the screeching of the anxious droids beyond it wanting to get in and destroy him. He could try and fight, hold his ground and escape the way he came in, but the vivid memory of a nasty injury to his rear quarters from a previous battle encouraged him to look for another solution. With a quick glance, he noticed that below the computer console there was a few panels, one of which was loose. Not one to doubt good fortune he quickly kicked in the unfastened sheet of metal and forced his way into the maze of wiring and hardware under the data processor. Just as he squeezed through, the safety door behind him slammed up as a D-12 forced it to.

The laser scanner, mounted on what could pass as a head, clicked on emitting a harsh green beam into the room. It scanned the field looking for anything out of place, particularly a black and red hedgehog. However, it instead locked onto the moved panel underneath the console. With heavy footsteps the armored robot made its way over to the computer and lowered itself on hydraulic legs. It scanned the inside of the hole created and received a blast of chaos energy for its trouble. It withdrew its arsenal from its arms and chest with quick, cold calculation. Shadow let out an exasperated growl as the robot shoved a particularly large cannon into the opening and proceeded to expel flames out of it.

Shadow scrambled backwards, tearing through electrical working and trying to remain un-singed. Maybe this wasn't a good idea. The fire created melted plastic, metal and sent sparks flying around him. It was as if the crazed robot didn't even care if it destroyed the master hub and, even though he was the Ultimate Lifeform, a few elements could still see him harm, intense heat being one of them. The flames swept across the hardware getting ever closer to where Shadow was trying valiantly to claw his way out. The heat was so intense he could feel his fur curl up and smell it as it toasted. He could hear more droids stomp in over the roar of the inferno and, worse yet, see them rip away more panels and thrust their own weapons towards him.

"Chaos Spear!" he shouted as he forcefully blew energy in the robots direction. With that temporary distraction Shadow decided it was time to get out of there. Pushing deeper into the wiring he found the back of the terminal, blew a hole through it and escaped. As he climbed out he noticed something odd. The power hook up lines were running right on through the wall; not to electrical outlets, but to holes. He also realized there was a strange green light pouring out from the openings and the familiar tinge of great power. Closing one eye and leaning forward he peered into the hole with the other. He could not believe what he saw.

There, on a pedestal, held down by metal clamps, was the green Chaos Emerald. It had been so long since he'd seen one that at first he didn't know what he was looking at. He stared intently at the warm glow of the emerald, almost lost in the awe of finding one, until he was jolted back into reality by the blast of one of the robot's laser cannons. He ducked just as a shot sailed over his head and penetrated the wall. As luck would have it, the blast created a nice sized entrance for him to get through. He lunged forward just as another shot cratered into the spot where he was. However . . .

"Ahhharrg," he screamed out in pain as his hand wrapped around the emerald. It was booby-trapped, sending a very severe electric shock through his body. He refused to let go. Even though the energy coursed through him, he bit back the pain and ripped it away from its prison. This only sent the robots into a more furious craze as they began firing erratically.

Shadow, already weakened from the burning he took earlier and now the electrical shock, dove to the ground. The action saved him from a few laser cannon blasts, but made him more vulnerable to other forms of attack such as the large feet and claws of the bots. He quickly rolled to the left as a huge metallic foot came crashing down. More robots came to join in the stomping fest as Shadow was quickly trying to get back on his feet. However, having to dodge, duck and roll away from rambunctious, murderous robots meant quite a few class A falls.

Suddenly a claw hooked Shadow around the waist and hoisted him up in the air, clamping down on the hedgehog and forcing out a painful breath. The Ultimate Lifeform brought his mind back into focus as he realized the droid's intentions. He gripped the Chaos Emerald tighter as the gem began to glow. He forcefully hissed out the words, "Chaos Control".

In a blinding flash of green light he was gone; emerald, information and all.

_**o**_

Alyson looked up at the clock that hung on the far wall as she typed in a few more commands into her laptop computer. She and Shadow had been working on this project for a few months now and still they were no closer to solving the mystery, let alone the overall dilemma. They needed proof that Eggman was behind the disappearances; any shred of evidence would do. She sighed as she drew her hands up to rub at her tired eyes. It had already been a long night, but it appeared it would only get longer for this middle-aged woman.

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw a blinding flash. She shrieked in surprise not knowing if she had been discovered by the government or Dr. Robotnik's robots, not to mention she was already jumpy from lack of sleep. However, when she whirled around, she didn't find a government agent or an android, just a heap of black and red fur lying on the ground. It took a moment for the shape of a hedgehog to register in the woman's mind before she jumped out of her chair.

"Shadow?" she gasped as she stooped down to check out her observation. She placed a hand on the hedgehog's back as he appeared to be unconscious. "Shadow, wake up. Are you alright?"

Alyson could feel her heart-rate increase as the Ultimate Life Form lay perfectly still. There was one thing she had learned about her partner and that was he was tough, downright indestructible. This was not normal.

With slight hesitation, Alyson scooped up the wilted body and placed the hedgehog on a small couch that was kept in the room. Shadow didn't even flinch but his hand uncurled around the emerald sending it tumbling to the floor with a clinking sound. Alyson turned to look at what had fallen with a bit of anxiety. Exhaustion tended to make her a little wound up. With a curious gaze, she bent down and slowly reached out at the slightly glowing trinket her friend had dropped. She rotated it in her hands trying to figure out what it was or how it was radiating green light.

"It's a Chaos Emerald."

Alyson nearly dropped it as she turned around to face Shadow. The hedgehog was now sitting up holding his head and remembering just how much energy it took to harness the emerald's power without his inhibitor rings.

"What is it?" Alyson asked.

"A Chaos Emerald."

"Really? I thought they were missing? How did you find it?" Alyson questioned before being silenced by Shadow holding up a hand with the data clip. The human glanced at it and recognition lit up her face. "You got it." She held out her hand to which Shadow filled with the light plastic drive. The woman raced to her computer and inserted it, still holding the Chaos Emerald in her left hand.

"May I have that back," Shadow stated. Without looking away from the screen, Alyson held out the gem. The hedgehog took it from the human's grasp and sat back down on the couch, looking at the gemstone with an unreadable expression. So much was going on, and yet nothing seemed to ever happen. Over the past seven years, Dr. Robotnik's attacks had become more vicious, his inventions more monstrous and his aim even more ambiguous . . . What was the doctor trying to do? Shadow rotated the emerald in his hand with the same vacant features.

Cities would be destroyed, but no attempts to build the Eggman Empire on its remains were made. Threats came all the time, but nothing would come of it except the fear that it was coming. And then there were theses. The Chaos Emeralds hadn't been seen for years and now one showed up in a base. What if that madman had more or worse- the rest?

"Shadow, here's something," Alyson spoke as she finished typing and gestured to the screen. "This shows all the recognizance information for the attacked cities, see." Shadow leaned in over Alyson and noticed the list on the monitor. It read:

_Doctor Robotnik Base 152 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Code # 915200_

_. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Operation: Schall_

_Units-__ FG800's-HG700 series-Land Droids-Air Droids_

_City . . . . . . Destination . . . . E . . . . . D . . . . A . . . . C . . . . R . . . . Total . . . . . . . . . . Priorities_

_Lake Shore . . . SS . . . . . . . . 0 . . . . . 25 . . . 63 . . . 32 . . . 2 . . . . 122 . . . . . . . . . Not found_

_Green Hill . . . . SS . . . . . . . . 0 . . . . . 7 . . . . 56 . . . 43 . . . 5 . . . . 111 . . . . . . . . . Not found_

_Mineville . . . . NG . . . . . . . . 0 . . . . . 98 . . . 367 . . .298 . . 25 . . . .788 . . . . . . . . . Not Found_

_Sun Valley . . . TH . . . . . . . .0 . . . . . 50 . . . 276 . . .125 . . 14 . . . .465 . . . . . . . . . Not Found_

The list went on for several pages with more cities and more numbers and more priorities not being found. Shadow sneered,

"What does any of this mean?"

"I'm not sure. These are cities that have been attacked as far as I know," Alyson said as she pointed to the city category, "The destinations are just initials though, it could be bases or other cities."

"So in other words this appears to be an inventory list of the missing from each city," Shadow said coolly.

"It seems that way. The totals do match that of the missing persons count. I don't know what each category is or what the priorities are." Shadow stared at the data for a moment and then let out a sigh.

"The A stands for adults, the C is for children. The E corresponds with the priorities list, both have zero results," Shadow murmured to himself.

"Okay, but what about the d's and r's?"

"I don't know, but the units must refer to the robots sent out to gather the hostages while the code applies to this particular base."

The two scanned through the list trying to decipher the information they so desperately needed to solve this disturbing mystery. Then something caught both their eyes at the bottom of the list.

_Target City: Kingsbury . . . Departure: 10:00 0131 . . . Arrival: Pending_

"This has to be the next city that's going to be attacked," Alyson stated solemnly, "It's already 11:30. We have to try and warn them anyway." The woman grabbed the cell phone on her desk and quickly dialed an emergency number. She was so caught up in her rush to help another town in peril that she failed to notice the expression on Shadow's face.

Kingsbury? Why did that sound so familiar to him? Was there someone he knew there? Was it a town he visited before? He stared at Alyson who was now frantically yelling into the phone about how it didn't matter if people of the state lived in the village or not, it was in grave danger.

Then it hit him.

"They won't bother sending a distress call out there Shadow," Alyson raged as she turned just in time to see the hedgehog vanish in a flare of bright light.

**Author's note: Well it's been a while since I've written a new story and this one is shaping up to be a long one. I hope the first two chapters were enjoyable. The list that showed up in this chapter took forever to do because it wouldn't transfer with tabs. I don't know why but I thought Fanfiction could do tabs. I ended up having to use periods to divide the section instead but it gets the point across. Reviews are welcome. :)**


	3. Chapter 3

_**IN DUE SEASON**_

Chapter III

_Times of crisis, Era of war_

"So Tails, why do you really need me here," Sonic asked with a smirk on his face as he hung up his coat on the way through the door. Tails' features twisted into surprise.

"What do you mean Sonic?" he asked as casually as he could, though the jig was already up.

"Help fixing the furnace, really? Come on buddy, I'm a little quicker on the uptake then that."

The two-tailed fox had the good grace to blush as he finished hanging up his coat. He turned to face his friend and seemed to debate on what answer he would give.

"Well, you see, Sol . . ."

"Oh, say no more. I know what the problem is now; having trouble with the lady friend," Sonic quipped as he lay down on a hammock next to the large jet Tails had obviously been tinkering with; maybe in an attempt to clear his mind the hedgehog thought.

"No! Well maybe, but it's not what you think Sonic. It's not the usual."

"When is it ever the usual with us anyway Tails? Besides, you wouldn't have marched through the snow at five o' clock in the morning if it wasn't important to ya."

Tails sighed as he leaned up against the wall and crossed his arms.

"I don't know Sonic. One minute she's happy I'm there and the next she's irritated that I exist. She's almost angry with me and I didn't even do anything."

"That sounds typical to me."

"What?"

"Yeah, Amy's the same way sometimes. Can't say she has me figured all out yet either. It just comes with the territory big guy," Sonic laughed at the young fox's concerned gaze. This was his little buddy's first long standing relationship, though Tails certainly couldn't be classified as little anymore.

"Well, how am I supposed to work with that? She just hasn't been acting like herself lately, Sonic. I'm worried that she's not telling me something, because every time I ask she gets upset."

"Why don't you just give her some space, she loves you right? I'm sure she'll tell you in her own time what's wrong."

Tails pondered the advice for a bit, before offering a sad smile.

"Maybe your right Sonic, I'm sorry I bothered you with this."

Sonic could see the concern on his good friend's face and frowned a bit himself. He jumped out of the hammock and came to stand next to the young fox.

"I'm always here for ya buddy, trust me, if Solana really loves you then she'll tell you if not . . . I'm still here for ya buddy."

Tails genuinely smiled.

"Thanks Sonic."

"No problem. So do you have anything to eat around here," Sonic chirped. Tails rolled his eyes but motioned for the hedgehog to follow him to the small galley he had in the hanger.

"Leave it to you to have a pancake breakfast and still want more," the fox smirked. Sonic grinned.

"Hey, have to watch the figure don't I?"

They both laughed until a loud rumble rattled off in the distance, echoing throughout the workshop. The two glanced at each other, confusion and fear clenching their expressions. Without a second thought Sonic was out the door and heading for town just as another eruption sounded accompanied by a lit up sky. His feet left deep impressions in the snow as his speed devastated the winter landscape beneath him, but to him, his feet felt like lead. Sonic had to reach there in time, he had to.

Tails followed closely, equally determined as he used his tails to propel himself forward along the ground. What they saw over the embankment caused them to both stop cold. Flames shot out from the tops of buildings as more explosions could be heard from the heart of the city. Sirens blared as townsfolk ran around in chaos, yelling and screaming for help and answers. Robots encamped around the village began to snatch up those who came running out to the main roads and more machines entered in to take prisoners or destroy anyone who fought back.

"Tails get the Tornado now and call for whoever's in the area," Sonic barked as he took off towards the town without another word. Tails took a moment to take in the amount of damage done in such a short amount of time, but turned to obey his friend's orders. He would call Knuckles and the Chaotix; they would come in a hurry. His brain reeled through several attack strategies he could execute with the bi-plane he had; a coping mechanism that automatically came on in the young fox's mind.

The hedgehog on the other hand was barreling down on the machines that lay before him with a deadly expression of resolve set upon his features. He saw ahead of him what he called runners, a stable droid that Eggman sent out with every diabolical mission. With ease, he crashed into them, making short work of their thin metal frames and pea shooter weapons. However, what these robots lacked in strength and power they made up in speed and numbers. They began alerting other bots to his presence and before long he was overwhelmed with them, narrowly missing laser fire and sharp clawed appendages. His thoughts were not on them though. He needed to get to Amy and see if Kimi was alright, he needed that assurance. He needed to blow past these idiotic machines.

He noticed one of the larger, more heavily armed robots was ransacking a nearby building and decided to try the old friendly fire approach. He saw a break in the enemy hoard around him and bolted towards the large armored Demolition Droid. With the aggravating charm that only he possessed he yelled out to it,

"Hey ya oversized can opener on wheels. Bet you can't even hit the broad side of an ocean liner let alone me when I'm coming straight at ya."

The monster of a robot whirled around with surprising speed, changing its tank like wheels out for sturdy hydraulic legs. It also bared its arsenal which even gave Sonic a sick feeling in his stomach. These bots were armed to the teeth and ruthless. One miscalculation here and that would be it for him, no questions asked. But with the same fearless tenacity and exciting rush that he faced everything, the hedgehog grinned as he ran straight on ahead to what appeared to be death's embrace, the barrel of a large missile launcher.

At the last possible moment, just as he saw the spark and kick back of the large gun, he darted out of harm's way allowing a 70 pound missile to whiz pass and score a direct hit on his pursuers. Sonic kept on running, paying no heed to the falling debris of the fireball behind him. His house was coming up soon and that was all he cared about right . . . now?

His heart nearly failed as his feet came to an acute stop. The inn, his home, was on fire, a raging inferno engulfing the whole of it. The blaze licked the crumbling building only letting off the sound of cracking wood and popping iron. He almost faltered as he took a step forward, trying to find some sign, a sliver of hope that his family had made it out safely. He tried to call to his beloved but his voice came out a rasp of disbelief as he continued to struggle towards the shattered remains of a place he left intact less than an hour ago. This wasn't happening. It couldn't be happening. He couldn't see them anywhere. Anywhere!

His heart began pounding, picking back up on a feverish pace, his breathing reaching a desperate rate. His thinking became instinctive to that of a husband and father. With his judgment impaired and reckless; adrenaline had finally kicked in and he ran for the flaming wreckage.

"Amy! Kimi!"

His shouts mixed in with several other voices, yelling, crying for their loved ones, but his didn't go unnoticed.

"Sonic!"

A black blur derailed the blue hedgehog's path to a fiery death, knocking him to the ground and holding fast to hero's shoulders, pinning him down. The structure collapsed into a spectacular shower of heated debris and ash. Sonic was stunned for just a moment before glaring up to his unwanted savior with an audible growl. Without even recognizing who the other was, Sonic tried to get up and fight back, make a run for the inn again, but he couldn't break free. The newcomer only turned his head and regarded the fire with a cool glance. He then looked back to Sonic with an almost unreadable expression, solemn perhaps. The blue hedgehog felt a wave of nausea wash over him brought on by despair and guilt. Feeling ashamed that he was acting like this and that he hadn't acted soon enough, he screamed.

Feeling Sonic's tense muscles finally relax, Shadow eased his grip. The black hedgehog looked around the invaded city of Kingsbury designing a means of attack. He could tell by the other hedgehog's actions of grief that it may have been too late to save two, but there were people still in need of aid. He calmly, but firmly lifted Sonic to his feet making sure he was stable enough to stand. The hero's face was etched in pain, but he managed to hold back tears as he looked to his darker double. With a nod of conformation, both knew what needed to be done. Shadow skated in towards downtown, where an alarming amount of robots were beginning to gather.

Sonic gave an aching last look to his home, hoping, believing that his family was safe somewhere, somehow. He couldn't risk checking now, because if he did he would lose all resolve and crumble right there. He took off towards the west end with everything in him to save others from a similar fate.

_**o**_

The Tornado sailed overhead, fighting airborne enemies, diving down only to deliver blows on ground forces. The battle for the skies was becoming a raging one and Tails knew he could only keep this intense dogfight up for so long. If only the jet was up and functional. Maneuvering the bi-plane into positions of offense and defense was taking its toll on him, but he also knew that he was probably going to be the only aircraft in this area for a while. He must keep going, he had to.

There was one thing working in his favor and that was the cover of darkness. The land droids couldn't spot him as easily from down below and make counter attacks against him, but then again the pre-dawn hours weren't helping him much in visibility either. He didn't know how many SD55's, or flyers as Sonic called them, were out there. But, judging by the several near collisions in midair he had with them, he guessed there was enough. Enough to lay waste to more buildings in town and clear a path for the bomber to come, and there lied his true mission; stop the bomber from reaching its destination.

Usually just one came out on any given attack. The reason for this was that these monsters of the air had a payload potent enough to devastate a ten mile radius and something like that just took time to build. And speak of the devil, there was one now. Tails needed to intercept it, disarm it and guide it to the ground safely all in two minutes or less because if it dropped its bomb all would be over. On top of this, he still needed to avoid the several flyers that were still in the air trying to take him down.

With the stakes so high and his energy depleting, he only had one shot at this. He barreled through the formation of SD55's that tried in vain to shoot him out of the sky before he reached the bomber. He released a few rounds of his own ammunition sending some enemy bots to a fiery doom. As Tails focused on the task ahead of him, there was a sneak attack mounting behind him. Fortunately, someone else was too. With a series of well delivered blows, five of the flyers behind Tails were eliminated and in a flash of red something came to rest on the wing of the Tornado.

"Knuckles!" Tails cried out in pleasant surprise. The echidna grinned and nodded. Coincidentally, he and Angel Island were not too far away from Kingsbury; in fact, after having a falling out with Rouge a little over a month ago, he had made the choice to come closer to where Sonic lived. He was able to move the island over quickly, thus his quick response to Tails' distress call. He turned to the bomber ahead. The pilot did the same thing as they made their way to the aircraft. "We have to disengage it and bring it down without doing anymore damage to the city," the fox voiced.

"What do you need me to do," the guardian shouted over the rushing wind.

"You see those red boxes over on the wings. If you can take those out then it will lose communications and guidance from wherever it came from then I'll take it from there," Tails instructed.

"Got it," the echidna confirmed, jumping off the wing of the bi-plane and gliding over to the bomber. As Knuckles made short work of all the guidance system devices, Tails maneuvered the Tornado over the monster airship carefully and pressed a button on the control panel in front of him. A robotic arm manifested itself from out of the hull of the plane armed with a sharp tip. With the click of another button the arm thrust forward, puncturing the larger aircraft.

Tails had done this several times in the past, using Eggman's designs against him. The bombers were big, that was true, but surprisingly light weight and weakly armored. Once it had no connection with its sender, he could easily take control of its navigation system and steer it where ever he wanted. That's how it usually went . . .

"Ahhh!" Tails screamed in pain as the Tornado was engulfed in a strong energy current, a new anti-tamper mechanism. It surged up from the bomber he had just pierced and was wreaking havoc on his own guidance systems. The smell of burning electrical work and singed fur was the last thing Tails could take in before he blacked out. The current faded away and so did the hum of the Tornado's engine.

"Tails!" Knuckles shouted as he witnessed what happened from his spot on the left wing. He watched as the plane fell onto the bomber and then rolled off the right side with no evidence that it would right itself and take flight. "Tails!" The echidna had to act fast. The bomber was still on course, but Tails was plummeting to his death. He leapt off the wing, pulling his arms and legs in together for speed and rocketed down towards the Tornado. As he got closer he could make out Tails unconscious form and frowned. At least the kid had his seat belt on or he would have been thrown from the now spiraling aircraft. He grabbed onto the tail of the plane and felt himself immediately go into a barrel roll with the airplane.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa!"

It took a while for him to focus with such disturbance, but finally he was able to move and start heading for the cockpit. He reached in and wrapped an arm around the fox. He looked at the ground below seeing the swirling mass of trees and rocks quickly approaching. He placed his other hand on the seat belt latch and almost regretted the action as his legs were flung out from the force of the planes rotation. If he undid the fastener he and Tails would be ripped out and possibly struck by the plane itself, but if they stayed with the doomed aircraft, well it wouldn't be pretty.

"Here goes nothing."

Knuckles released Tails and sure enough they were both jettisoned out. The echidna took a minute to orient Tails and himself so he could glide and was still doing so as the plane made contact with the land below. The explosion sent heat past them and the guardian looked down to see that wasn't all; a fire ball was quickly rising. The echidna tried to veer to the side, but with the fox's extra weight it wasn't going to be enough. So he did the next best thing.

"Wake up already!" he shouted as he shook the unresponsive nineteen year-old. To his amazement and relief Tails came to.

"What . . . what happened?"

"Fly now, NOW!"

Tails was confused but twirled his namesakes and lifted them up and out of the way of the blast.

"That was close," Knuckles breathed in relief.

"What about the bomber?" Tails questioned, his memory restored.

"It's up there; we still might have a chance to take it down but we need to act now."

The two-tailed fox began to make a slow accent to the bomber, grunting all the way.

"Jeez, Knuckles you're a lot heavier then I remember."

"Shut up."

_**o**_

"Vector, isn't that Shadow?" asked a voice from seemingly nowhere. The crocodile responded by looking up to where he heard the noise, just as the city's sirens died out leaving a haunting stillness in the air.

"I can't see ya Espio. What were you saying?" he asked. The outline of a chameleon came into view as it jumped down from its spot on a broken beam. "That's better," Vector smiled. Espio rolled his eyes but proceed to answer his friend's question.

"I'm sure I saw Shadow run by over there. Maybe we should investigate and see if he needs our assistance."

"Shadow, huh? Well, good thinking, I'm sure we can help without a shadow of a doubt," Vector laughed at his own pun. Espio sighed and decided to take off. The crocodile followed with some protest of wanting the chameleon to wait up. It didn't take long for the two to come up upon a scene of destruction and struggle. Shadow was in a heated battle with a densely armed robot trying to gain the advantage. The two reptiles looked to one another and nodded, they knew exactly what to do.

The two charged forward, Espio taking the lead as he threw several shurikens out into the robot, particularly the moving joints. The monster bot temporarily lost focus on its goal of squashing the hedgehog's head and turned to face its new assailants. It wasn't prepared for the direct impact of a more than 200 pound crocodile or the reptile's metal shattering bite. The robot toppled to the ground, critically damaged and vulnerable for the last blow dealt it by Vector.

"Are you alright Shadow …?" Vector asked, but was shocked when the black hedgehog lunged forward taking both him and Espio to the ground.

"Get down," he directed through gritted teeth as laser fire flew past.

"No, let's get out of here," Espio exclaimed as he pointed up. Shadow and Vector glanced in that direction to see a bi-plane heading straight for them.

"Ugh, Chaos Control."

All three disappeared in a flash of light just before the Tornado crashed. They reappeared several yards away looking on as the robots erupted into flames from the downed vessel.

"Wasn't that Tails' plane?" Espio asked, not really knowing if he wanted the answer to that or not. Shadow's eyes darted from the scene of the crash to the air. He spotted what he was looking for and couldn't help but feel a little relieved. He saw the fox carrying the echidna upwards, pointing them out to the others.

"Hey he's alright and there's Knuckles," Vector stated, happy to see some good news for a change. However, their brief joy was flattened by the collapse of the black hedgehog accompanied by the screams of people needing help nearby.

"Shadow?" Espio questioned. He hadn't seen the ultimate life form in quite some time but knew this wasn't a normal state for Shadow to be in.

"Go, they need you!" the hedgehog commanded through gritted teeth, 'I'll be fine."

Without needing another word the two headed off for the distress wanting to bring this reign of terror to an end. Shadow watched them leave before trying to get up. He struggled with his weary limbs, knowing his energy levels were fluctuating too heavily for him to be of any real use to anyone and he hated it. Ever since losing the ability to control how much power he used it wouldn't take long for him to go down in a fight or have to turn back and recuperate. That's why he felt worthless all the time, why he had dropped out of G.U.N. a year ago, why he left his team, Rouge and Omega.

He closed his eyes as another wave of fatigue washed over him, nearly knocking him over again. How pitiful, he didn't deserve to be called a living being much less the Ultimate Life Form.

The sound of a familiar voice shrieking snapped him out of his self berating; his eyes focusing on the direction of the noise. It sounded like the young rabbit, Cream. He felt a new strength rise within him, bubbling over the weakness. He clenched his fists and took off in a burst of speed. As he came over the hill he saw Cream and her chao, Cheese, desperately fighting off several droids who were trying to reach her unconscious mother. With fire in his eyes, Shadow leapt over the embankment of snow.

"Chaos Spear!"

_**o**_

"What do you mean you won't send anyone down there to help?" a white bat nearly screeched. The human in front of her put up his hands in a surrendering fashion.

"We just don't have the man power right now and it's so far away we just can't spare the resources . . ."

"Don't give me that crap, Commander. If it was the other way around they would be coming to your rescue before you even asked."

"We know you're upset agent Rouge, but facts are facts and the truth is . . ."

"No, I know exactly what the truth is. The truth is there aren't any of 'your citizens' down there so you're not going to lift a finger to help those who have saved your sorry cans time after time!" she roared.

"Now you're stepping across the line agent," the man stated firmly slamming a fist on the table. He was becoming defensive mainly because what she said was true but, as ashamed of that as he was, he couldn't let her know that.

"When have I ever cared about lines? I don't know about the rest of you guys but I'm going down there to help."

"Rouge?"

"What? You can't stop me," she stated coldly as she rose from her seat in front of the Commander's desk. He sighed in defeat; this argument had started ten minutes after they received a distress call from Kingsbury. To be honest, he would have sent down a platoon to help out, but his hands were tied. The public may have liked Sonic and his 'friends' even loved them in the past but at the end of the day most humans now considered them just animals; not worth dying over or wasting tax dollars on. More distressingly for the organization was that some facets of society saw the animals as a threat, something that the government should deal with. Despite all that though he liked Rouge and knew that he could trust her with his life along with the rest of them. He had seen first-hand Sonic risk everything, even his life, to save the public before. What harm would it do for his best agent to go down and help stop a skirmish between the Eggman Empire and the creatures. At least if it came back to trouble him he could blame it on the fact that she was helping her own kind.

"Just be careful. Take what you need, but don't tell anyone."

Rouge was grateful for her leader's permission, even if it was reluctant. She didn't show it though, just looked to him before walking out of the office. She spread her wings out and took off down the hall weaving in between people walking the corridors. She ignored their pleasant hellos or annoyed grunts as she headed straight for the hanger. She needed a quick vehicle with lots of fire power and she knew just the one she wanted, but first she was going to need some back up. She landed just outside the hanger doors and pulled out her communicator. The first contact on the list was Shadow. Rouge frowned and proceeded to the next.

"Omega, come in . . ."

_**o**_

Crash! Boom! Another robot fell to the blaze of raw speed and blue quills, acting as a launching pad for the next attack on its fellow robotic soldiers. It appeared that Sonic the hedgehog was on nothing short of a rampage, droids being the appropriate targets. He was exerting every last bit of energy into tearing through metallic armor and shields, paying no mind to the injuries he was sustaining from each assault. He was the only thing standing between the destruction of homes and families and the enraged android hoard. He could hear the cries and screams of people behind him trying to escape their houses to safety as well as the screeches and roars of the robots in front of him wanting nothing more than to annihilate it all. He was unwavering in his quest, none the two shall meet.

"Is that the best you got," he taunted as he charged forward delivering quick and severe blows to seven runners. Another D-12 series robot reached out and grabbed the speeding hedgehog with severe force. Sonic was not easily daunted as he quickly went into a spin within the robot's grasp severing the robot's hand and traveling up its arm to bring a critical blow to its head. The bot exploded sending the wildly spinning hero into another group of deadly machines. The force of his impact sent the androids to the ground. Another explosion erupted and Sonic felt himself being thrown once again coming face to brick with a nearby building. He was dazed, burnt and bleeding but the clicks and beeps of active machinery urged him to rise to his feet. His muscles were burning and his strength was fading; the snow, long since melted from the intense combat, soaked his quills. It had never been this hard in battle before, never. Sure there were close calls and it never was a walk in the park by any means, but these bots seemed to know his next move.

"Shoot," he grunted as several lasers fired at him causing him to leap right. Regrettably, as he had noted, one of the robots had anticipated this move and launched a missile ahead of time. It struck directly in front of him sending slush, dirt and Sonic back into the wall. Before he could even recover a battle droid raced forward and slammed the hedgehog into the ground. It applied pressure, crushing the speedster into the dirt and mud mercilessly. Sonic could feel the air forced from his lungs and his ribs ache from the strain. He could see more androids closing in weapons at the ready. Suddenly the scanning device located on the top of the androids head activated bathing the hedgehog in a green glow.

"Subject identified: Sonic the hedgehog. Initiating data retrieval process."

Sonic clawed desperately at the hydraulic arm, trying to jam it back up. He could see spots before his eyes as oxygen depleted. He couldn't let it end here. He had to save those people, he had to help the others, he had to find Amy and Kimi.

"No," he choked weakly. He was so disoriented by the lack of air he didn't notice the small metallic arm come out of the bot and up next to him holding what looked to be a hypodermic needle. However he did feel a small sting in his arm. The large robot pushed down all the harder as the hero struggled.

"Data retrieval completed," it stated as it withdrew a syringe full of blood.

The fire in his lungs and the numbness he was feeling in his body and mind told Sonic he didn't have long. Play dead or be dead. He quit fighting hoping the robot would let go in time. No such luck. Before succumbing to the blackness of suffocation Sonic heard something distantly.

"Leave him alone!"

**Author's note: Cliffhangers, don't you just love them. Thank you for all the nice reviews and I hope you are enjoying the story so far especially this installment. More to come soon, hopefully. :)**


	4. Chapter 4

**In Due Season**

_Chapter IV_

_Endear the Battle, In No Way the Lore_

"I can't get enough altitude," Tails panted, trying everything within him to ascend.

"Then just drop me, I can get down from here," Knuckles stated.

"No!" Tails shouted just before the echidna let go, "I'm going to need someone's help in getting that bomber down." Knuckles let out an exasperated sigh; was he really that heavy. Joking aside, he knew Tails couldn't fly long distances and the fox was just recently electrocuted. What they needed was a . . .

"Need a boost?" a chipper voice asked as they suddenly went higher. Knuckles looked up to see a bee had grabbed onto Tails' shoulders and was helping to lift them up. The fox, feeling some of the weight come off him, breathed a sigh of relief.

"Right on time Charmy! Where's Vector and Espio?" the guardian asked.

"They're down there somewhere. We split up once we met Solana. I went with her. . ."

"Solana?" Tails nearly yelled.

"Yeah, anyway, I saw you guys and thought you might need some help. . ."

"Is she okay?" Tails asked. Charmy sighed. He hated being interrupted all the time.

"Why don't you ask her yourself? She's coming right now." Both fox and echidna turned to see a small silver helicopter heading their way. Tails' glee could hardly be contained as he spotted the familiar aircraft. It was Sol. The chopper pulled up alongside the flying trio side door already open for their entry.

"Thought you all could use a lift," a ginger colored dhole quipped from her seat in the cockpit.

"We sure could!" Knuckles hollered over the noise created by the rotary blades. Charmy and Tails guided themselves into the helicopter being careful not to get caught in the up draft. Once safely in, Tails made his way to the cockpit, grabbing a pair of headsets and coming beside Solana.

"Thanks," he said.

"Anytime, sweetie. So to the big bomber I presume," she smiled maneuvering the chopper in that direction.

"You got it, first try." Both the canines laughed while Knuckles and Charmy busied themselves with rolling their eyes.

"Can we remain focused, please," Knuckles huffed. Tails blushed but Solana's expression narrowed.

"Don't get your locks in a twist. I could fly this thing with a blindfold and . . ."

"Look out!" Charmy shouted frantically. The dhole turned to see a missile heading straight for them. She quickly veered left allowing the projectile to pass without incident.

"Blindfolded, huh?" Knuckles snorted. She frowned deeply before looking back at Tails to gloss over her mistake.

"What is it you need me to do?" she asked. The fox looked to the bomber and then to the control panel of the helicopter.

"Do you still have that automated guidance system I put in for you last year?" he questioned.

"Yes, but why does that matter now. I have most of the autopilot systems on already . . ."

"I need you to turn those off and fly manually up to the top of the bomber. I think there's an anti-tampering device on that thing and it's wired for guidance systems," Tails directed.

"I don't get it Tails. The Tornado looked like it was creamed for just being near that thing. How can you assume . . ." Knuckles started.

"I'm not assuming. When I took them down in the past, I had to rely on the plane's systems to keep me steady when working. That's the first thing and probably the only thing that electric pulse took care of."

"But the plane's engine cut off. The same could happen to this thing," the guardian protested.

"No, Knuckles because we're not going to do that again. It's just a precaution. We're going to try something a little bit different this time, trust me," the fox persuaded.

"If you say so."

"Not to seem rude, but I'm still heading for a huge warship with no idea what it is I'm doing," Solana interjected. Tails flushed just a bit before responding.

"Oh sorry. Okay here's the plan . . ."

_**o**_

"Oh no, Shadow!" Cream yelled as she witnessed the hedgehog getting slammed into a boulder by the droid; the crushing impact echoing in her ears. The ultimate life form went limp while the chaos emerald he was using rolled out of his hand into the mud. The robot released its grip on Shadow and turned towards her. She shivered with fright, but bravely stood her ground. Cream wasn't going to give up, not now. Shadow had helped her draw the fight away from her mother and Kimi. She had suffered many battles in her young age and had things ripped from her due to them, but the rabbit was not going to lose friend today.

The robot lunged forward, ready to dig its claws into the teenager, but was met with stark opposition from Cheese. Cream took the moment of distraction as an opportunity. She leaped up, avoiding the assault by inches and used her ability of lift to her full advantage. She rose until she deemed it the right height for her own attack.

"Come on Cheese," she rallied causing the chao to come to her side. With Cheese providing extra speed and strength, Cream lunged full force, feet extended for a kick, and dealt the android a devastating blow, sending it sprawling backwards. They didn't stop there as the duo repeated the maneuver, crippling the robot further. It tried to fight back with laser fire and hooked appendages, but one more kick drove it to the ground in a useless heap.

"We did it Cheese," Cream breathed in relief not because she doubted her abilities, but instead acknowledging she was getting tired.

"Chao, Chao." Their victory was short lived however as a flame shot out from somewhere behind them, narrowly missing the rabbit and chao as it engulfed the robot before them. They turned around quickly to see a line of D-12's, flamethrowers at the ready. Cream could feel horror grip her once more as she could make out the sound of the weapons tuning up to fire.

"No!" She heard as a black blur moved in front of her just as the flames came forth. Out of reflex she grabbed Cheese to protect him and shut her eyes as if to protect herself. She expected the blaze of an inferno but instead just felt a hot breeze whip behind her. She opened her eyes to see that Shadow was standing in front of her holding back the flames with some kind of shield. She stared in awe.

Shadow was just as surprised. He didn't know he had the ability to create a barrier like this. Being a living weapon he typically used his powers on the offensive rather than the defensive but here it was, 'chaos shield'. He was too weak to use chaos control but this seemed to be working. Still, his energy was draining and he didn't know how long he could hold this up. He should have grabbed that chaos emerald. His strain didn't go unnoticed. Cream could see the beads of sweat forming on the hedgehogs brow along with his teeth gritted in pain.

"Cheese, you have to find help," the rabbit instructed; desperation evident in her voice.

"Chao," the light blue creature nodded as it surveyed its surroundings trying to see a gap in the blaze in which to escape. He found his chance and took it. He shot forward, making it out without a burn. He looked back with alarm as he saw the magnitude of the dilemma. The robots were stepping closer to the black hedgehog and it wouldn't be long until they reached him. He had to hurry. He flew out, frantically looking for someone to help with the frightening situation. Villagers were gone, captured or worse and there were no other heroes in sight. Cheese began chirping in a panic as he dashed around frantically, that is until he smacked into something large and metallic.

_**o**_

"We got them on the run Espio!" Vector cheered as he witnessed the robots turn and head back the other way.

"It's either that or there heading to another target Vector," the chameleon stated dryly.

"Guess we should still stop em huh? Come on!" Vector shouted. Espio waved his hand in an 'after you' fashion. The crocodile charged forward smashing into a few androids as his ninja accomplice followed up with a few skilled attacks of his own. Before long the two of them had laid waste to several bots, a sense of pride created within themselves over their victory. However, Vector caught sight of something in the distance and his features twisted into dismay as he yelled out, "It's Vanilla!"

Before Espio had anytime to respond Vector took off running in the direction of the fallen rabbit. The chameleon followed, concern covering him as he knew his friend's attachment to the Rabbit family. They reached her quickly and the crocodile knelt by her side checking to make sure she was alright.

"She's still breathing and everything, but we need to get her someplace safe. Where's a hospital when you need one," Vector cried, fear coming into his voice. Espio surveyed the area around them until he spotted a break in the destruction that might lead to safety.

"Over here, we should be able to make it down the hill and away from the city. It's going to be okay Vector."

The crocodile calmed down enough to scoop Vanilla up but began panicking all over again as another thought occurred to him.

"What if Cream's here!" he panicked. Espio nodded in acknowledgement.

"I'll look for Cream. You get Ms. Vanilla to safety," the ninja instructed as he faded from sight and headed out. Vector looked on as he could see the foot prints of his invisible friend leading out and decided to do the same all the while praying that Cream and Vanilla would be alright. He received an answer to one of those prayers quicker than expected. The rabbit in his arms began to stir, eyes fluttering open as she let out a groan.

"Vanilla, are you okay?" Vector asked pausing in his travel. She looked to him in slight confusion. Then as she saw the fire and heard the popping ambers in the air her memory came flooding back.

"Cream!" Oh my goodness, Kimi!" Vanilla shouted as she anxiously wiggled in the crocodile's grasp. Vector nearly toppled forward.

"Whoa! Hold on a sec, Vanilla," Vector said as he struggled to place her on her feet.

"I'm so sorry Vector, but where's Cream and Kimi?"

"Well, Espio went to look for Cream, but Kimi . . . ?"

"Yes! . . . Oh Vector, I had her right with me . . ." Vanilla began to panic, the memories flooding back. Just as the attacks had started Amy brought the infant over to join her and her daughter in the fight, but when they had gotten separated from the new mother, she had been holding Kimi. She and Cream had tried to locate Amy only to run into more trouble with a pack of robots. She remembered her daughter charging forward and then severe pain in her head before it all went black. Now she had lost Kimi.

"We'll find her, I'm sure she has to be around here somewhere. What happened here anyway?" he asked; his old detective instincts kicking in.

"I don't know. We have to find her though, she's only a couple months old," Vanilla cried. Vector quickly jogged back to where he saw Vanilla last, diving to all fours and searching the rubble and surrounding debris for any signs of the baby. The motherly rabbit did the same, tears streaming down her face at the awful thought that it might be too late.

_**o**_

Knuckles found himself drilling through metal, wiring and who knew what else under great protest. This was the plan: First, drop down on the bomber, second, find the entrance hatch, third, get inside and last, take over the main controls from in there. Problem was step two hadn't gone as planned. Now he was digging into something that could potentially detonate at any second; not something he felt like dealing with at six o' clock in the morning. Either way, he trusted Tails and knew this was the only way to stop this thing.

Tails followed right behind him carrying all the necessary tools to complete what they had started. Solana and Charmy were still hovering overhead hoping there would be no further mishaps in this mission. The dhole had convinced Tails to at least take a communication device with them just in case something went wrong but it was little peace of mind considering the circumstances.

"I think this is it, I can feel the generators," Knuckles hollered back. Tails nodded, albeit nervously, but gave the okay for the echidna to make the final blow in. The guardian could feel a bit of apprehension make its way down his face in the form of sweat. He just really hoped he was punching at a control room and not the payload. He gave a cry as he punched through the solid metal, breaking through. Success!

"See, what did I tell you, nothing to blow-up about," Tails quipped shakily. Knuckles grunted.

"There's what we need another wise-guy, just get in there and do your thing."

"Just trying to lighten things up, no reason to explode," Tails smiled as he climbed through the opening to the floor below.

"Very funny. When we have an opening for another Sonic, I'll put in your resume," the echidna gripped. Tails made it over to the panel and slipped on some heavy duty electrical gloves for insurance before opening up the control box. The fox worked diligently, rewiring systems and cutting off all auto features. He now had manual control of the bomber.

"What brilliance!" a voice exclaimed. Tails to fell back on his bottom in surprise. It was a speaker just above the control panel with a recognizably awful tone, Dr. Robotnik. "Miles Prower, also known as Tails. Such mechanical genius spent consequently in a hero's shadow," it continued. The fox glared up at the speaker as he rose to his feet. "I'm sure you remember Sonic the hedgehog, who doesn't, am I right? But who's that little scamp that follows him around, oh yes, that would be you, child. Have you ever realized something? How without the champion the team usually falls apart."

Tails continued to work, appearing to ignore the message, but a growl escaped his lips.

"Well Tails, how long has it been since you started up your subordinate role as sidekick, nine, ten years? Has it ever paid off? Do you ever feel important, useful, respected . . . victorious? Are you making any real progress? You and that hedgehog have yet to stop me. So much time and effort, sweat and tears and yet no closer to ending this war."

Knuckles couldn't help but see the weight of the statements on Tails. He knew the guy had to be weary of these constant battles, but they all knew the cost of allowing a maniac like Robotnik win.

"Yes you are loyal and resolute, that is true, but I see some treacherous hands being dealt and the odds are looking uncertain for our hedgehog. Dear youngster, when the day comes for your hero to fall, you won't be far behind," it finished coldly. Knuckles came up behind the fox, placing a hand on the other's shoulder. Tails quickly regained composure and smiled up at the echidna.

"Alright, I should be able to guide it in for a smooth landing, but I'm going to need Sol to guide us because I can't see anything from in here," Tails instructed as he pulled out the walkie-talkie and tried to hand it to the guardian. Knuckles stared at it then back at Tails.

"What do you want me to do with it?" he asked. Tails sighed.

"I need both hands to steer so if you could hold it up to my ear that would be greatly appreciated," the fox stated curtly. Knuckles grabbed the device with some attitude, but did as instructed, pressing the button so Tails could talk.

"Sol this is Tails, over." Both Solana and Charmy jumped at the sudden sound of the walkie-talkie. She grabbed it before her hyperactive companion could try and do the same.

"This is Sol, what is going on, over."

"I got it, but I'm going to need you to give me directions so I can land it safely, over."

"Oh, you can ask for directions now, but you cannot stop and ask for directions on the way to the beach, huh? Over." Tails blushed, but Knuckles was not amused.

"Are you serious? I swear I'm surrounded. Over," the echidna voiced into the communicator. A fight ensued on the walkie-talkies with even Charmy getting involved. Tails screamed in frustration.

"We are trying to save lives here people!" Knuckles, never admitting he felt ashamed of his behavior, quickly returned the communicator back to Tails' ear where the fox heard a chorus of apologies. This was going to be interesting.

**_o_**

"Hold on Shadow, Cheese will bring back help," Cream encouraged as she could see the hedgehog's resolve wane. His arms bent in strain and fatigue. He couldn't come up with any other defensive action as all his energy was concentrated into making this shield. They couldn't see how the robots were only a few feet away or that the bots were coming with the full intent of flattening them under massive feet. All they could see, hear and feel were flames. Shadow knew he couldn't hold this any longer. How could he? But, another part of him knew he couldn't let it down, for Cream's sake.

He felt the heat breaking through the shield, this was it. He turned to face the rabbit, ready to use his body as the final shield, but nothing came. All he heard was silence. The roar of the blaze had temporarily dulled his senses and yet, he swore he could make out the sound of something extremely familiar.

"Kill! Maim! Destroy!"

Omega? Shadow's head shot up as he looked around. Sure enough the heavily armed combat robot was busy sending a spray of bullets and missiles into the mass of D-12s. He wasn't alone in his assault either as Shadow spotted a G.U.N. issued fighter-craft flying low and delivering its own ammunition into the bots. It had to be Rouge. They were saved. He faced Cream once again with a more confident and directive air. Without a word he picked her up and carried her out of the arena of battle, coming to rest close by only because he could run no longer. Mustering every last bit of strength he had, he placed her down gently and then collapsed face first into the snow.

"Shadow," Cream cried before she felt a hand rest on her shoulder. She looked up to see Espio. The chameleon looked out at the fighting ahead and then to the fallen hedgehog. He bent down and began to roll Shadow over. Cream caught on and helped get him into a more comfortable position on his back. The hedgehog was completely worn out from both this and other battles he had already been engaged in prior.

"I think he's okay . . ." Espio stated uncertainly. The ultimate life form didn't need to sleep or rest as far as he knew, but the ninja was pretty sure that rough breathing sound coming from the hedgehog was snoring.

**_o_**

Vanilla and Vector had hunted all over the area, knowing the fires were closing in around them, but neither wanted to give up the search for the baby. Still, the crocodile saw the need to get the rabbit out of the area as she had begun to stumble around, disoriented and exhausted.

"Come on Vanilla, I have to get you out of here," he directed, taking her by the arm and steadying her toppling gait.

"We have to find her," Vanilla coughed as more tears came down her face. He knew this was hard for the motherly rabbit and his heart broke at the thought of her pain.

"I'm sorry . . ." he began.

"Are you two alright?" a voice asked from outside the wall of fire. Both looked up but couldn't see through to who was speaking. "Hold on," they said. With surprising swiftness a gap opened up in the flames as if it was just pushed aside, but considering who was doing the pushing . . .

"Blaze?" Vanilla asked as a purple cat stepped in through the opening but her eyes quickly went to what the feline was holding in her arms. "Kimi!" she shouted as she reached for the baby hedgehog. Blaze obliged in giving over the little one but looked at the rabbit in confusion.

"How did you know my name?" she asked. Vanilla nestled the baby checking it over for any marks or bruises. Then she reached over and gave the young lady a hug.

"Thank you so much. We met a long time ago. My daughter knows you better."

Blaze looked the older woman up and down as realization played across her features.

"You're Cream's mother! Vanilla!"

The rabbit nodded as Vector just looked on in bewilderment.

"Can someone tell me what's going on?" he inquired, scratching the back of his head. Blaze took on a more serious expression.

"I don't know, but if Cream is here, that means I'm not in my dimension anymore. Where's Sonic?"

"We can answers those questions better from a safer location," Vanilla stated as she walked through the path Blaze created. The feline followed, cooling out fires along the way and answering the rabbit's questions as to how she found the baby while Vector gave a sigh of relief and came up behind them.

**_o_**

Rouge landed her ship next to Omega as Espio was coming up to them. Just before the lizard could reach the group, they all heard a low rumble in the background along with a vibration of the earth below.

"What was that?" Rouge asked as she opened the hatch, allowing Cheese to come flying out. The chao eagerly went forth to look for Cream.

"Sensors indicate that a large vessel has landed close by," Omega related.

"Huh?" Rouge regarded him before spotting the chameleon running up.

"Shadow and Cream are over there. I regret to inform you that I'm not sure if Shadow is alright," Espio said, pointing in the direction of the pair. The bat and robot looked to one another before they raced off, Rouge taking to the air and Omega stomping through the snow. They reached the rabbit and hedgehog in a matter of seconds, seeing that Cheese had beaten them there as he floated over Cream, who had Shadow's head in her lap. The rabbit looked up to them.

"I think he's sleeping," she replied, trying to understand the oddity of it. Rouge landed next to them and put a hand under the hedgehog's nostrils to see if he was indeed still breathing only to be surprised by a thunderous snore. She hadn't seen Shadow in several months, and to finally see him safe and sound was an overwhelming relief to her, but to catch him napping was priceless; if only she had a camera. She laughed causing Shadow to jolt out of slumber as his eyes slowly opened. Rouge turned to Cream.

"I believe he likes to call it falling in battle, so it will be our little secret okay," she smiled and winked as Cream did the same.

"What happened?" Shadow asked hoarsely as he rose up, clutching his head.

"Hopefully you remember us handsome."

That smooth voice he remembered all too well.

"Hello Rouge," he said coolly to the bat before looking past her to the E-series behind her, "Omega."

"Espio!" they all heard a high-pitched voice call out in the distance. The chameleon looked up for who called his name, having a feeling he knew who it was. Sure enough, Charmy came dive-bombing out of the air showing no signs of stopping. The reptile cringed in anticipation of an impact, but the bee came to a sharp stop just inches away from his head.

"Charmy, you maniac, don't do that!"

"Aw. Well anyway, you won't believe what we did, first me and Solana went up to go help Tails and Knuckles, then Tails got control of this huge airship and we crashed it into a frozen lake and Knuckles was glad that we didn't blow up and we stopped the bomber . . . It was awesome!"

"Alright already."

"Cream!" another voice shouted out from another direction. The rabbit turned to see her mother coming up over the hill holding Kimi with Vector and Blaze in tow.

"Mom! Blaze!" she cheered happily as she sprang up to greet them.

"Well, it looks like the gangs all here," yet another voice declared. Knuckles along with Tails and Solana came up. It wasn't long until there was a raucous of stories and greetings flying around. Shadow sat quietly as he listened to the different conversations going on around him, again tiredness slowly fading his consciousness.

"Yeah, if it wasn't for little blue over there we never would have found Shadow and Cream," he picked up from Rouge. Two words stuck out to him, little blue. Blue.

"Wait!" Everyone hushed upon hearing the hedgehog's exhausted voice. "Where's Sonic?" he breathed; his last words before slipping into nothingness.

_**o**_

In blistering combat, where hammer met mecha, could be found Amy gritting her teeth against the strain as she brought her heavy, blunted weapon down on yet another doomed robot's head. She was taking out her fear and anger on these bots. All she could think about was her family; her husband lying motionless only a few yards behind her and the baby girl missing from her arms, both gone as far as she knew. Androids screamed out as they launched attacks on the pink hedgehog, who only missed being struck narrowly. She knew she was beginning to tire and that delay in reaction time here would spell death.

"God give me strength!" she hollered as she charged forward and knocked one of the larger machines back into the other smaller robots, taking them all down. With a temporary break from the robotic onslaught, Amy ran back to her downed hero's side. She felt a sob catch in her throat as she saw what condition he was in. Cuts and bruises littered his body and his shallow breathing was sure to plague her dreams forever. It sounded like he was dying . . . She placed a hand on his forehead, stroking his quills back; she had to protect him. Standing up once more to fight another wave of robots, Amy nearly faltered.

Exhaustion was gripping her limbs and her head pounded from the fighting she had already participated in with Cream and Vanilla. Earlier she had been troubled by a funny feeling shortly after Sonic left home and knowing better than to ignore that check, she gathered Kimi in her arms and headed over to see the rabbit family. To her dismay the siege on the city began when she was almost there. Cream and Vanilla had met her outside the home and they left together hoping to find refuge for Kimi's sake. However, Amy had to give her little one over to Vanilla so she could help fight more effectively alongside Cream. That's when she got separated and now . . . now she didn't know where any of them were.

Tears welled in her eyes, her mind reeling through the series of events. Suddenly she felt a hand on her back. With one fluid motion she turned around, raised her hammer and would have nearly struck her husband on the head if it hadn't of been for his quick reflexes.

"Whoa Ames, it's all right."

She nearly cried at the sound of his voice. She grabbed him in a hug, to which he staggered a bit in his footing. He returned the embrace, more for the sake of her protection then a warm reunion as he pulled her out of the way of an assault. They both regained their combat stances, though they each knew at this point they were whipped. Amy held her weapon high getting ready to do anything it took to protect Sonic and in turn he prepared himself to do whatever he could to defend her. They were both bowled over by the mechas. The robots were inches away from slaying the couple when the Calvary arrived.

In a flash of red and white, several bots were knocked away from the hedgehogs and as the dust settled Knuckles and Rouge were clearly seen standing before them. The echidna turned around to offer a smirk.

"Thought you could use a hand," he spoke.

"Well finally, what took you so long?" Sonic coughed as he gave a sly grin of his own, slowly rising to his feet. He helped his wife up who immediately rushed forward.

"Have you seen Vanilla or Cream?" she questioned desperately. Rouge met her alarm.

"Don't worry Vanilla, Cream and Kimi are fine."

The bat could literally hear the weight lift off the young mother as Amy let out a sigh of relief, knowing her family was alive. Sonic came up to stand beside her, feeling liberated from the fear for his family's safety. That last rush of adrenaline both hedgehogs used to carry them this far quickly drained along with the color in their faces. Sonic's vision became distorted while Amy's strength wavered. They both felt light-headed.

"Sonic, are you alright? Amy?" Rouge reached out to both of them. Knuckles looked back just in time to see the couple fall back to the ground, unconscious.

**Author's Note: I apologize for any typos up front. My favorite editor, and sister, is currently clear across the globe in Japan doing missions work . . . Yay! Posts may go a little slower now as I will probably be updating once a month, but I hope you enjoy the longer chapters. Thanks for the reviews and favorites everyone, there always helpful and encouraging. **


	5. Chapter 5

In Due Season

_**Chapter V**_

_On Memory's Return, Unions Are Sworn_

**I remember trying to remain inconspicuous; blend in and not attract too much attention to myself. Considering I was a giant black hedgehog walking amongst a bunch of human scientist on a space station, I was doing an incredibly good job. Grant it, the scientist were use to me wandering around as the professor gave me full permission to do so. But this time I was trying to conceal a tiny traveler in my tall head spines; a tiny traveler that liked to squirm and make noise. The passenger in question was a baby; a baby what, I'm not sure. My memory is vague in that regard.**

** "A-choo," I remember faking a sneeze as the little one shifted and coughed in my quills.**

** "Shadow, are you feeling okay," a passing man stated as he stopped to eye me. I waved it off as just something bothering my nose. The scientist gave the explanation a quick nod and walked off leaving me to breathe a sigh of relief. If any of them found out that I had the baby . . . well I'd rather not remember it.**

** So why did I risk such a venture when it could have spelled disaster? The answer wasn't simple because I didn't really have an answer at all, but I remember one thing. The child had gone through a battery of tests and experiments that day. They were not all that different from the ones I was subjected to daily. I remember that it was my fault and that the tests hurt and that the small one would have been left to cry and shiver in fear alone. I knew what had always made me feel better and so I sneaked the baby out and was taking him to the only other person on that ship who could keep a secret. Maria.**

** "Shadow," she said looking up from a book she was reading on her bed when the door opened. I made a gesture for her to keep her voice down as I shut the door behind myself. She closed her book and laid it down as I drew near the bedside.**

** "Maria, I need to share something with you but . . . you have to promise to keep it a secret," I stated, staring at her with the utmost confidence. She quirked an eyebrow and grinned, I remember.**

** "Depends on what it is," she stated jokingly. I know a look of pain must have flashed over my features, because she looked regretful.**

** "Please."**

** "Of course I can keep it secret. What is it Shadow?" I pulled the small one from my quills and set him on the bed. The young girl's eyes lit up immediately. **

** "He is so adorable," she cooed picking it up. It fidgeted in her arms, but didn't cry. It reached up to her face, intent on her eyes.**

** "Is he one of the experiments," she asked solemnly. That's right it was a he wasn't it? I blink for a moment in thought. Was it an experiment? No, he was a test subject or at least that was what was printed on his unit chart.**

** "He's a test subject I think." Maria frowned as she allowed the baby to play with her fingers.**

** "Poor thing," she replied softly. **

** "Wha your name," the child grinned. Maria dropped him out of shock and he curled up and rolled down to the bed before spreading out on his back. I believe she didn't know the little one could speak; he could speak, I remember. Why can't I remember what it looked like?**

** "I'm sorry I didn't mean to drop you." **

**He just giggled.**

** "Do it again," he exclaimed trying to crawl back up into her lap. She smiled and so did I. This was the happiest I had ever seen the little one. I remember watching as Maria played games with the toddler while I kept an eye on the door, I didn't want a scientist popping their head in and discovering my offense.**

** "Here you go, you can have it," I heard Maria say. I looked back to see the girl handing a small stuffed bear to the child. The baby held it in fascination for a few minutes before drawing it close for a firm embrace. He looked up and smiled at Maria before turning his gaze to me seeking approval for the gift. I had no idea how I was going to hide this from the professor but I couldn't help but give into the pleading eyes of both the child and Maria; Maria's eyes I can remember. I nodded. The little one gurgled with excitement and outright squealed with laughter as Maria began tickling him.**

** "What's his name, again?" she inquired of me, since the baby was too overcome with the giggles to respond. I hesitated. I didn't have a name for him, I remember, but I knew its mother had a name. That's right, he had a mother . . . However, I was forbidden at that point to have contact with her and wasn't even supposed to have the baby.**

** "I call him . . ."**

** "Maria? Is Shadow in here with you?" a voice spoke from the door, a figure glancing from left to right. Maria and I froze in fear; it was Gerald Robotnik, Maria's grandfather, the professor. "Ah there you are Shadow; I have been looking all over for . . . you." The elderly gentlemen spotted the little one, who immediately ducked under Maria's arm. I remember.**

** "No, no, no," the baby whispered frightfully as the professor stepped over to us.**

** "Shadow; what is this creature doing in here?" he asked firmly. I opened my mouth ready to divulge the truth I knew would cost me dearly, but Maria interrupted. **

** "I'm sorry grandpa. I took him. I didn't mean to cause so much trouble. Shadow was going to take him back now is all," she pleaded, quite convincingly as she passed the small one to me. The professor looked to her then to me.**

** "Is this true, Shadow?" he asked of me. I remember that I couldn't find it in myself to speak but I nodded in approval. I didn't know why Maria lied for me but I went along with the charade. After all I was going to take the toddler back so it was practically true. The professor wasn't convinced, I could tell, but for whatever reason he turned away from me back to his granddaughter. "Maria, you know it is dangerous for you to handle the wildlife, you could come into contact with sicknesses." Maria nodded in submission to the lecture. I watched her not knowing how to react at this point. The baby clung to me tightly still afraid of the professor's presence. **

** "Can he still keep the teddy bear?" she inquired. Gerald looked on with mild shock.**

** "Who?" he asked.**

** "The baby. Can he keep the toy?" she replied holding out the teddy for the little one to take, giving her grandfather an earnest face. **

** "I suppose so, but I don't want to see a repeat of this. Shadow can visit because he has been sterilized like everyone else dear. But the lab creatures haven't," he stated as he reached out and bridged the gap between the outstretched toy to the tiny one.**

** "Okay," Maria replied while the professor turned back to the dark hedgehog. **

** "Shadow."**

** "Yes, sir."**

** "Go ahead and return him to his unit, but remember no more contact with him and wash up." I again nodded moving for the door as quickly as I could without looking conspicuous. I cursed myself for thinking this was a good idea. I really shouldn't have done this, but as I looked back at Maria who winked at me and the baby who cuddled the toy close, my heart found me guilty of no crime. I remember having cleaned the baby off before bringing it to Maria, knowing of her disease, and avoiding punishment for both him and myself. But why can't I remember the baby? Why am I remembering this at all?**

"Shadow, are you awake?" a voice pierced through the fog of his memories and awareness. He opened his eyes to see Rouge standing over him; a concerned look set on her features. He lifted his head up a bit, finding himself lying on a cot set in the corner of what looked like an aircraft hangar. His strange recollections mixed with the facts of his current situation created confusion. Where was he, why was he here and how long had he been there? "Well, you gave us a little scare there for a while Shadow. You were out for long time handsome and you weren't the only one. It seems you hedgehogs have a tendency to overdo it," Rouge stated as she helped him sit up further on his pillow. It took a moment for her words to register with him and when they did, he recalled everything.

"Rouge, what happened? Where's Sonic, the others?"

"Settle down, he and Amy passed out, just like you, but I think they'll pull through. Tails and Solana are looking after them now. Everyone else is fine," she answered, noticing that the hedgehog was still not satisfied.

"What about the assault? Are all the machines disabled?" he inquired as he began trying to get up. Rouge pressed a hand to his chest and eased him back down effortlessly; he really must be beat.

"The others have taken care of it. Knuckles took the Chaotix and Omega out to run damage control while we took you and the others back here to Tails' workshop. Now it's my turn to ask you a question. What were you doing out here? Why has it been ages since I've seen you?" she inquired sternly, keeping her hand in place to prevent him from moving again. She could feel his body tremble for a moment, whether from fatigue or something else she didn't know.

"I was trying to prevent this from happening," he stated simply. Rouge wasn't fully content with that answer and was entirely frustrated that he didn't respond to her other question. She hadn't seen her friend and former teammate in months; it was only natural for her to feel concerned. However, she also knew that he wasn't one to reveal much especially in times of stress. Judging by the troublesome expression on the dark hedgehog's face, she was aware that this must be one of those times.

"Shadow, really, where have you been all this time?" she asked with a softer tone causing the other to pause. He looked into her questioning turquoise eyes with his own intense red ones; a moment of contemplation for both of them. It quickly turned to awkwardness, however, though for different reasons. She looked on with concern while he finally turned away, feeling a tightening in his chest as he removed her hand from it a little quicker then he wanted to.

"I've been busy," he stated curtly instantly taking note of Rouge's offended expression. He didn't mean to come across as upset, but it seemed he often did. He wanted to let her know that her concern was not unappreciated. "Still, it's good to see you're alright," he stated quietly. Rouge smiled. She knew that was all she was going to get out of him and decided to leave it alone, for now.

"Thank you." Shadow nodded in acknowledgement as he gave his surroundings another once over. He was happy to hear that Sonic and Amy were okay, considering his first encounter with the blue hedgehog. He spotted the fox dashing back and forth between the two while the dhole brought bowls of water and clean towels to the former's request. He turned to see the rabbits attending to what looked to be a makeshift crib; a good sign that Sonic's family was intact. His gaze stopped on a figure standing near one of the workshop windows. He didn't recognize this purple cat before him.

"That's Blaze," Rouge stated simply, having followed the hedgehog's line of sight. He looked to her.

"Who is she?"

"Your guess is as good as mine, honey. She seems to know Sonic, though who doesn't, right? She knows Cream and some of the others too. From what I heard, she's from another dimension," Rouge explained as she too looked over to the feline who absentmindedly swished her tail. Shadow blinked and was somewhat startled when he opened his eyes to see Blaze staring right back at him, though he hid it very well. He continued to watch the feline, not wanting to break eye contact first. Finally she broke the gaze and went back to looking out the window. "It also looks like she has some of your charming disposition," Rouge smiled.

"Yes, well . . . it appears everything is under control here . . ." Shadow began, a signal that he was getting ready to make an exit. Rouge was all too familiar with the hedgehog's amazing disappearing act and if she was honest with herself it hurt when he did so. It had been so long since she spoke with him and he had left their team without saying much about it. He only made contact with any of them when it called for it, usually to help out or find information, but then he would be off again for another several weeks without a trace.

"Why don't you stay a while Shadow? We could use your help in sorting all this out," she said smoothly, hoping her gentle tone would make the invitation to stay more attractive.

"I have other matters to attend to," he said evenly.

"Why do you always have to play the part of mysterious loner?" she sighed, not realizing that she was actually pouting.

"Rouge, you of all people should know the value of remaining vague and the benefits to working alone," he smirked looking up at her. The small humor wasn't lost on her, but she was still upset.

"Yeah, but I also understand the cost of not having backup or real answers, Shadow."

He turned away at this, choosing to stare down at his hands instead. Somewhere within him, he knew she was right; the absence of his inhibitor rings seemed to emphasis the point. If it had not been for her and Omega he and Cream would have perished. But that just made it all the more shameful and agonizing for him. For her part, Rouge also knew of his missing inhibitor rings; how once he lost them he started to feel less beneficial to the group and grew distant. But even though he seemed more far-off now than ever she just wished for him to know that he was wanted and needed. Yet, what could she say that she hadn't said before.

Shadow looked back up, catching the eye of the purple cat once again. He gave her a fierce look instinctively; his first thought being she was eavesdropping on their conversation. To his embitterment, the feline glared back. Oh, he didn't like her, whoever she was, and this just furthered his agitation. He gazed back at Rouge.

"I have to go."

And with that, before she could say anything else, he disappeared in a flash of green light. Chaos Control.

"Darn it," Rouge breathed as she placed a hand to her forehead.

"Excuse me," she heard a voice say from beside her. The bat looked up to see Blaze standing there with a concerned expression. The cat had taken notice of the hedgehog's abrupt departure and only hoped she wasn't the cause of it. She hadn't meant to give him such a harsh look, but his tone and words had just reminded her of her own past characteristics and shortcomings. "I'm sorry, but I couldn't help but over hear some of the conversation. Will he be alright?" Rouge gave the cat a quick once over. She really didn't know Blaze, but true concern could be detected in the feline's curious voice. After all, if Sonic trusted this lady it was good enough for a government agent.

"It's fine. Believe it or not, he does that quite often," Rouge stated, not missing the look of guilt on the other's face. "What's wrong hon?"

"Oh, well I . . . just wanted to . . ."

"It's alright, you don't have to apologize. With the dirty looks he gives sometimes, I would have glared back at him too," Rouge winked. Blaze smiled.

"Hey everyone Amy's coming to!" Tails shouted as he raced over to the pink hedgehog's side. Rouge and Blaze made their way over with the others, excluding Sonic who was still unconscious. Amy was stirring atop the cot she occupied with what seemed to be a troubled awakening.

"Come on Amy, please wake up," Cream pleaded from the bedside. Amy's eyes fluttered open and her vision slowly adjusted to her new surroundings. With a start she sat up, before receiving a quick pounding in her head.

"Ow," she groaned from the pain only to be tackled in a hug.

"Amy! You're okay," Cream stated happily.

"Yeah, except for the huge headache."

Everyone grinned.

"Now, Cream give the poor dear some space," Vanilla scowled as her daughter released her grip with a sheepish look.

"Well that's two up, one to go. Speaking of which, where's Shadow?" Tails asked as he looked to Rouge. The bat gave a shrug and the fox completely understood. No one expected the darker hedgehog to of stayed long, he rarely did.

"What happened? How did we get here?" Amy asked as Solana handed her a glass of water and some aspirin.

"The town was attacked remember," the dhole stated. Amy nearly chocked as she summoned up the memory.

"Where's Sonic and Kimi?"

"They're safe honey, so is everyone else," Rouge said quickly, trying to avert the panic attack bound to come.

"Amy?"

Everyone turned to see that Sonic had finally come around. He shot up before weakly collapsing back on his elbows, his eyes slowly taking in everything around him.

"I have an idea . . ." Tails waved for Solana to follow him as he went over to Sonic's bed. The two rolled the cot over next to his wife while Vanilla took up on the cue to retrieve Kimi. Once the hedgehog family was reunited, relief washed over Sonic and Amy's faces. Everyone enjoyed the few moments of warmth and intimacy, everyone expect Blaze. She seemed to be grossly shocked by the sight before her.

She was told very little due to the commotion understandably and she hadn't seen these guys in years. But seeing Sonic and Amy together with a child no less was mind boggling for her. True Amy had been pursuing him back then, but he seemed so sure in remaining a bachelor. Now he was married. However, when Sonic caressed Amy's face and the two exchanged sentiments, the cat felt another sensation rise within her, one that both angered and troubled her. She looked to the ground with a flush. What was this about?

"Blaze?"

She looked up at the mention of her name only to be stricken with anxiety when she found out who was talking to her. Sonic looked into her eyes and she tried to remain calm, the feeling of apprehension building.

"Yes Sonic," she managed to say. Amy picked up on the nervousness in her voice and looked to the feline with concern. This response only caused more unease for the cat, but all this went unnoticed by Sonic of course.

"Hey, long time no see. I hear I have you to thank for saving the little one; thanks. Anyway, how've ya been?" he asked with a grin.

"Um, you're welcome. Fine I guess, and you?" she said awkwardly. Rouge and Solana also observed a bit of discomfort.

"Can't complain, though I've had better days. So, what brings you here? Is everything okay in your dimension?" he asked with concern. Everyone turned to hear her answer. Blaze breathed a sigh of relief. At least the conversation had turned towards something more manageable for her.

"Everything appears fine, but seeing as I've been transported here once again there must be a reason."

"My thoughts exactly. . . Do you think it's the Sol Emeralds?"

"No. There hasn't been anything unusual. In fact, I currently have them all with me. What about the Chaos Emeralds?" she inquired. She took note of the sadness coming over the hero's face. Tails decided to interrupt.

"Uh, we haven't seen the Chaos Emeralds in years. I'm afraid we can't really tell for certain if their okay or not."

"Wait!"

They all turned to face Cream.

"I saw Shadow with a Chaos Emerald. He used it in the fight earlier," she informed.

"Where is Shadow?" Sonic questioned perking up at the thought of a Chaos Emerald being found.

"You know him; Mister Personality couldn't stay long," Rouge quipped as she folded her arms. Sonic shook his head. He was grateful for his darker double's help, but sometimes the guy could be frustratingly uncooperative.

"Why does he do that? Worthless. We have lots of clean-up to do and all he can be doing is disappearing," Solana said hotly, her accent more pronounced in her upset state.

"Ya know, he only starts disappearing when you show up," Rouge spat. The two females glared at each other, past skirmishes being remembered.

"Hey you guys, now isn't the time. Did he say where he was going?" Tails intervened, trying to divert the argument. Rouge narrowed her eyes at the dhole before facing the fox. She had nothing against the mechanical wizard but . . .

"No, only that you had better tell your sweetheart to get a better handle on that mouth of hers before someone does it for her," the bat said with a cool smile. Solana was just about to say something when Tails cut her off with a look. She scowled.

"I'm sorry Rouge," she stated simply.

"That's alright sweetie. Seriously though, he didn't tell me where he was headed off to. I think I'll go check on Omega and the others though, if you don't mind me 'disappearing' for a bit," she retorted before lifting off the ground and floating out of the workshop. After glaring daggers into the back of the treasure hunter's head, Solana turned her glare onto her boyfriend.

"Miles! Why did you take her side?"

Solana usually called the fox by his real name, insisting it was lovely, but at this moment it was in anger.

"What, I wasn't taking sides."

"Yes you were. You even made me apologize," she spat, though anger was not the only emotion present. The dhole seemed hurt.

"That's because you sort of started it."

"No, that is it!"

As the two canines bickered back and forth, Blaze shifted her gaze back to Sonic.

"Well, maybe we could talk later on the subject. I know you're busy at the moment," the princess stated politely. She could tell the group was still wound-up and needed time to sort things out before she intruded with her own problems.

"Hey no time like the present, right? I'm sure we'll figure out why you were teleported . . ." the blue hedgehog started when his daughter began to burble loudly and reach for him from his mother's arms.

"Looks like someone wants to join in the conversation," Amy smiled as she held the little hedgehog out to Sonic. He gladly took Kimi up and cradled her in his arms. Vanilla and Cream smiled along with the parents. Once settled they all looked back up again.

"Sorry about that Bla- . . . where'd she go?" Sonic asked. Cream spotted her walking towards the door.

"Blaze?" she called out to her friend. The purple cat stopped, but didn't turn around.

"I, uh, just need a bit of fresh air is all, sorry," she stated before exiting. Cream turned back to the others who gave her equally as confused faces as her own. Sonic looked to the still arguing dhole and fox with annoyance.

"Could you two please cut that out!"

Both shut their mouths quickly.

"I think I'll go and check on Blaze," the teenage rabbit said as she picked up Cheese from his place on Amy's cot.

"Okay dear, that sounds like a nice idea," her mother said. Cream nodded and went out the same way the fiery feline had, hoping she could help her old friend. Solana finally let apologized to Tails, who apologized back. The fox brought the hedgehog family up to speed on the fact that Knuckles was currently leading a small search and rescue team while he had planned a better means of helping the area. After that both canines decided it would be a good idea to maintenance their flight vehicles, knowing they would be needed in the recovery effort.

"What can I do?" Sonic asked, making an effort to get out of bed, trying to pass Kimi back to Amy. Tails quickly turned.

"You're going to stay in bed until you're fully rested. Amy I'm leaving him in your charge, okay?" Tails commanded sternly, or as sternly as he could.

"Hey," Sonic huffed indignantly.

"Yes Sir," Amy smirked at her husband as she mock saluted with one hand and pulled the speedster back down with the other.

"Well now that you two are okay I believe I'll head down to the medical site. It's not that far from here and they could probably use an extra hand," Vanilla informed the couple. The hedgehogs nodded and watched as she went over to Tails, supposedly telling him the same thing. Amy turned her full attention back on Sonic and Kimi. She counted her blessings, knowing things could have ended up a lot worse. If she had lost either of them . . .

"Amy, we're okay," Sonic said softly as he reached a hand up to wipe a tear from her eye. He knew what her train of thought was because his own was running on the same track. But the past was gone and they were safe now; all that mattered was still here. Amy sniffled a bit, but smiled. She reached out to take Kimi again and Sonic happily allowed her to. After a few moments the pink hedgehog finally spoke up.

"I wonder what's wrong with Blaze?" she inquired.

"Don't know, but if anyone can get it out of her its Cream. To be honest, I'm more concerned about Shadow."

"Because he took the Chaos Emerald," Amy stated simply. Sonic looked to her with a thoughtful expression and then nodded.

"He knows that we can't find the others. Why didn't he tell anyone he found one?" Sonic said hotly, his temper flaring up a bit. Amy could feel her own anger stir up knowing that her husband was upset, but Shadow, as strange as he was, hadn't given them a reason not to trust him.

"But still, why would he try and keep that from us?" she asked. Sonic really couldn't come up with an answer for that. The black hedgehog was shaky at times, but when it came down to it, Shadow did his best to do what was right. If he intentionally kept the information from them, he had to have a reason. Sonic sighed, allowing the tension to release.

"Yeah . . . well I guess that will be a mystery for another day," he stated as he reached over and allowed Kimi to grab on to his finger. Amy looked down at his ripped gloves, then to her own tattered outfit and Kimi's dirty pajamas. Normally the little battle scars didn't bother her much considering how many battles they'd fought, but as she took note of the bruises and cuts her heart was put at ill ease. Her mind replayed her husband's motionless body in the mud and her daughter's absence from her arms. But, she quickly shook off the thoughts, glad that they were all right.

"When do you think she'll start walking?" Sonic asked while playing with his daughter's hands, "The book said its months off."

Amy smiled.

"Well, if she's any child of yours, she'll probably start running here pretty soon," she laughed. Sonic smirked.

"I think that would be pretty cool. Guess with you being her mom and all, we can expect her to start wise-cracking in maybe two possibly three days," he shot back. Amy huffed in indignation.

"I don't know what you're talking about; you're the one who's always joking around."

"True, true. I did get the first laugh out of her," he grinned, knowing well this would fire up the competitive side of their relationship and it did.

"When she does start talking I bet she'll say mommy first."

"In your dreams. Whose _daddy's_ little angel?" he chimed leaning forward, tickling the baby's stomach. Kimi laughed. Amy pushed him aside.

"_Mommy_ loves you sweetie, that's right, _mommy _loves you," she sang. Kimi smiled with bright eyes at her mother.

"Daddy loves you too. Daddy."

"Mommy."

"Daddy."

"Mommy."

The violet hedgehog's eyes bounced back and forth from each parent, confusion.

"Daddy," Sonic said a little too loudly causing Kimi to flinch.

"Look what you did Sonic," Amy scowled as she collected the little one in a reassuring embrace.

"Well you started it," he mumbled. Amy smacked him upside the head playfully which caused Kimi to laugh.

"See, now I can make her laugh too," Amy smirked.

"Oh no, wise-cracking and slap-stick humor. I'm a goner," he groaned before settling back down in his pillow. After a moment of silence he shot back up. "I'm bored."

_**o**_

Rouge flew along a path leading back into town, gliding over the untouched snow of that morning's early flurry; a silent reminder that the battle had not gotten this far. It was a peaceful route with vibrant evergreens leading the way and ice crystals glistening in the sun, but it was all harshly contrasted by the smell of smoke and the sound of collapsing rubble. She sighed aloud as her thoughts wandered through several dilemmas. Things that she had been debating over for a while seemed to bubble up during times like these and she didn't want to deal with them. Now she wished Shadow would have stayed, but there was no convincing that stubborn hedgehog of anything. She could just go find Omega and leave, but for the others sakes she desperately wanted to stay and help. Over the past years she had grown close to these guys; especially the hedgehog family and their new addition.

In fact if it wasn't for her status in G.U.N. she would probably move closer to them, but she had a life in Central City that seemed to hold on tight. It wasn't that it was bad there by any means. Most would consider that she lived a charmed life. She had her high rise apartment, her interesting occupation with a good salary, the adventurous hobby of treasure hunting for jewels from around the world and friends to boot, but now things had changed and she wasn't too sure she liked it.

First off, her military job had grown more and more disconnected from her somehow. It almost felt like they didn't want her there or at least didn't want her to be as involved with missions as she once was. Even when Shadow, the ultimate agent, was still there, it seemed like G.U.N. didn't even want him around, though Team Dark had done good work for the organization in the past. Once the dark hedgehog left things really went downhill; not only because of her personal lose of a friend and co-agent but for her career realm as well. They began cutting back on how many missions she could go on, giving her the excuse that it was her many years of service that warranted time off. She might be getting older but seniority never prevented agents from doing their job. Then they started the run around games with her; not giving her accurate or important information at times. They blamed that on poor intelligence gathering methods, but she knew better than that. Now they had actually restricted her clearance and she felt like she was one step away from being relieved of her duties all together. However, job dissatisfaction was not the only issue.

Next was her personal life. She had plenty of friends in the city, maybe even too many at times, but none of them felt close, not like the ones here now. Even Solana filled the void of 'person you can't stand' better than her coworkers. She had true friends in Sonic, Amy, Tails and Cream; something that was hard to come by. She visited them of course, but lived life in the fast and glamorous lane of Central City and admittedly had grown distant. She had been to dozens of parties, gone on hundreds of exotic trips looking for gems and spent countless hours on everything from fashion to theater. She had enjoyed the attention and respect of these self pursuits but now people in the city didn't really seem to care about her or her accomplishments as much as they use to. Life in general wasn't looking all that glamorous. It seemed the world had just chosen to forget how much she had done and the only people who could relate lived miles away. In all this time, all she had was a house full of treasure and no one to share it with. That brought her to another painful thought.

When she served as one of Amy's bridesmaids at the pink hedgehog's wedding two years ago she was struck with this simple fact, time flies when you're having fun. She was 27 then and enjoying life. Now the bat was closer to thirty then she wanted to be and not getting any younger. She wasn't having as much fun and she thus realized another fact of time, it wastes away when you're not happy. She had watched Sonic and Amy's relationship grow and had to admit she felt jealous of them, she wanted one too. Her eye had caught on Knuckles a long time ago; heck, they were even engaged at one point in their history together. But that relationship seemed to fade in and out of existence. Even now they weren't getting along all that well after an argument they had last month. That's when he took the floating island away from the shore of Central City; she hadn't heard from him until now.

The white bat had gone on several other dates with other men, but none of those relationships worked out quite as she wanted. Most of this was due to the alternative motives of the men she had tried to get to know. She wasn't bragging, or maybe she was, but when you looked as good as she did and had the successful lifestyle she had, wisdom and caution were her two best companions. But this only reinstated in her the reason why she liked Knuckles; he was honest, upfront, trusting and a bit naive. He wasn't perfect, but in the years she had gotten to know him, he always treated her well, even if finesse was sometimes lacking, and in dating he really was a true gentleman. In other words she could depend on him to be his usual knuckle-headed self, and there weren't too many guys she could do that with. Knuckles was endearing to her in that regard. Maybe she would stay, for her own sake.

The town was coming into view and Rouge decided she would put these thoughts away for another time so she could focus on finding . . . _Bring. _Her cell phone went off startling her for a moment. She brought it out only to not recognize the caller. She wondered if she should just answer it and see who it was. She flipped it open and placed the device to her ear only to be more surprised by who came on over the other end.

**Author's Note: Here it is! Chapter 5 and there appears to be a lot of mystery in this one. I hope you enjoyed this as much as I enjoyed writing it. I will have another installment next month so watch out for it. Reviews are welcome. :) **


	6. Chapter 6

**In Due Season**

Chapter VI

_As Crisis Revisits, There's Duty To Warn_

Hours had passed since he left and what little hope the woman had left waned awfully thin. Alyson assumed Shadow had gone to help the people of Kingsbury, but with each passing moment she wondered if the dark hedgehog was ever coming back. It wasn't that she didn't have faith in the ultimate life form's abilities, but she knew Shadow wasn't exactly at the top of his game when he departed. The guy had been unconscious mere hours ago. She had tried radioing the hedgehog several times only to get back blank static. All she could do now was stare at the computer screen and wait . . . a minute, did those numbers just change?

Alyson quickly leaned forward, intent on the list of cities and categories, to find that numbers on Kingsbury were being added. She gaped at the figures not knowing what to make of them. This was a flash drive document, a file downloaded hours ago. How could it be doing anything? She looked to her hands and around the desk trying to see if something was possibly pressing on the keyboard. No. She watched the display again.

_Target City: Kingsbury . . . . . . . . Departure: 10:00 0131 . . . . Arrival: 11:40 KB_

The older woman still couldn't believe it, but the information was indeed updating itself. Somehow Shadow must have downloaded a program instead of just raw data. Alyson quickly switched on her task manager and found out that sure enough there was activity going on between her internet connection and this strange software. She wondered if she was linked to one of Dr. Robotnik's mainframe computers or maybe a wireless network of some kind. Well, now was as good a time as any to find out. If she could gather additional information from Eggman's intelligence complex then it would be one step closer to stopping the mad man's plans once and for all.

Just as she was about to start hacking away, her lucky discovery switched into an ominous sign. A new slot opened up on the list with new numbers, numbers that troubled her.

_City . . . . . . . . . . . Destination . . . E . . . .__ D . . . __A . . . .__ C . . . .__ R . . . .__Total . . . . . . . . __Priorities_

_Kingsbury . . . . . . . . . EC . . . . . . X . . . . .0 . . . . 5 . . . . 6 . . . . 0 . . . . 13 . . . . . . . . . . Mach_

"Mach?" Alyson asked herself as she looked at the priorities category. This was the first time in the entire record that a priority was found. She also noted that the total of captured people was drastically smaller than that of the other cities, category E had an X in its place instead of the usual 0 and the only factor she had at this point to explain the differences in data was that Shadow was there. She hoped this didn't mean her friend had been caught . . . or worse. She quickly began typing. If there was any report on Shadow's whereabouts within her grasp through this program, she was going to find it.

Within minutes she had all kinds of charts and statistics flashing on her screen, each with even more information than the last, but nothing on Shadow. As her fingers blazed across the keyboard, she failed to notice the very object of her search return to the room in a flash of light. Shadow wavered in his arrival clutching his head and trying to stay upright. In an effort to remain standing he reached out and grabbed the back of the Alyson's chair, leaning heavily upon it. This of course startled the human out of her wits.

"Ah!" Alyson screamed as she shot up out of her chair, sending Shadow sprawling to the floor. Once the human realized who it was and what she had done, she quickly bent down and tried to help her partner up for the second time that day.

"Shadow, I'm so sorry. You scared me. I didn't even know you were behind me. Is everything okay?" she apologized helping the hedgehog to his feet. Shadow felt an extreme wave of exhaustion wash over him; like he had just fought fifty robot armies using every chaos attack he had until he bled his resources dry. He waved for Alyson to guide him to the couch where he sat until the fatigue subsided. The woman continued to fuss over the ultimate life form and it took everything within the hedgehog's power not to roll his eyes. Sometimes his human companion could be such a mother hen. Shadow disregarded the trivial concern and instead focused his attention on the screen ahead.

"What do you have there?" he finally asked pointing to the laptop.

"Oh," Alyson wrinkled her brow, "Are you sure you're alright?" He nodded. She sat back down into her chair and moved the computer over so they could both see. "It looks like you downloaded some kind of tracing program. I've been able to update the information and even get some more statistics on Eggman's next attacks Shadow. Look I even got the numbers from Kingsbury here." Shadow leaned in and looked over the figures. He was happy to see that the numbers were low, but the fact that the priorities list had 'mach' written in it bothered him.

"Are you able to figure out the destinations yet?" Shadow asked. Alyson shook her head.

"No, but the destination on Kingsbury is unlike any of the others. I did manage to find out what the letters mean. You were right about the children and adults, C and A. The R stands for recruit, the D means . . . dead," Alyson said solemnly, looking to Shadow who encouraged her to continue, "And the E is for enemy. The X is a mystery to me."

"Ten."

"Huh?"

"It's the roman numeral for ten. The doctor would use that whenever he didn't want the average hacker to know too much too quickly," Shadow smirked. Alyson scolded him a bit but continued scrolling through the charts and graphs. The two studied it for a while until the woman paused on a particular statistic.

"Can you explain this to me?"

Shadow looked at the bars and lines, numbers and equations for a few moments before dread passed through his eyes.

"What is it?" Alyson asked.

"Go back to the cities again," he said with stress. She did as he said and brought up the list again. To both their surprises a new slot had opened up.

_Target City: Kingsbury . . . . . . . Departure:12:30 0115 . . . . . . . . . Arrival: Pending_

"They've never done that before. They're going to attack the same city again. Why?" Alyson said, strain evident in his voice. Her town had been assaulted by the Eggman Empire once, years ago, and it was a terrifying experience. She couldn't imagine how terrible it would be if it happened twice in one day. Shadow was just as puzzled by the update. Dr. Robotnik had raided many cities, but rarely twice in the same day. The hedgehog presumed the graph was just another inventory of sorts, but when he saw KB appear twice he wanted to make sure. Now he wished his suspicion had been wrong.

"I don't know, but I need to go back and warn them," Shadow stated as he reached to retrieve his chaos emerald; he would need the extra energy to make a return trip to the town and . . .

"What?" Shadow exclaimed as his hand came up empty. The emerald was gone. He raced through his memories trying to remember where he might have misplaced it. Then he was reminded of his battle beside Cream; he lost it there and never retrieved it. He cursed himself for being so careless.

"What's wrong?"

Shadow looked up to the human who was giving him a worried expression. The hedgehog's brow knitted up in thought. He knew he didn't have enough energy to teleport himself back; he didn't even know how he got back to Alyson without the emerald. So how could he warn Sonic, Rouge and the others about the impending attack? He shut his eyes in frustration, bringing a fist down on the sofa he was seated on. Why did he forget to pick up that cursed chaos emerald? What was he going to do? After opening his eyes and glancing to the desk an answer became clear.

"Alyson, let me see your cell phone."

_**o**_

Blaze could hear footfalls in the snow behind her as well as the sound of softly fluttering wings. It had to be Cream and her pet chao Cheese, being the kind-hearted rabbit would have been the only one to follow her out here. Well, at least she remembered Cream being kind-hearted anyway; it had been years since she'd seen the little heroine, who wasn't all that little anymore. The girl had to be in her teenage years by now.

"Blaze, please wait up." She was still polite. The purple cat stopped and turned to face the approaching bunny with a standoffish expression. It wasn't that she had anything against Cream, but the circumstances in which she found herself in were irritating and confusing at best. The princess was now in another dimension with no news about her own world and no explanation as to why. Even though Sonic's world was a familiar one, the atmosphere had unquestionably changed. This wasn't the land she had left years ago and she didn't know exactly what to expect from it.

"I'm sorry that we didn't get to talk to you properly. We were so busy at the time," Cream apologized as she came up next to the feline. Blaze's expression softened.

"No, I'm sorry Cream. I guess I was just a little . . . overwhelmed in there, that's all."

The young rabbit smiled at the warmness of her friend's voice. She considered this had to be a troubling situation for the princess, being the feline was here under the same mysterious conditions as before. Being older now, Cream could better understand the position Blaze was in.

"Well, we can talk now, if you don't mind?"

"Not at all. In fact I was just going to see if the others needed any help if you'd like to join me."

The two started out down the path, Cream being the first to break the silence.

"It's been so long since I've seen you, how have you been?"

"I've been doing well. I even took after your example and made quite a few friends."

"I'm happy to hear that Blaze. What about your kingdom and new friends? What have you been up to?"

The two chatted back and forth on things concerning both the insignificant and important as if they had never left each other's company. Cheese followed the pair, putting in his own two cents here and there in the form of chirps. The usually guarded cat found it easy to talk with the young rabbit about nearly anything and listened intently to what Cream had to say. Blaze was taken aback by Cream's accounts of the past three years being full of more violent attacks by Eggman and the state of affairs concerning the Chaos Emeralds. Likewise, Cream was deeply intrigued by the princess' recount of events relating to her kingdom being at war with Eggman Nega.

"How did you stop him?" Cream asked. Blaze closed her eyes as if deep in thought.

"To be honest, I didn't. After I got the Sol Emeralds safely back he disappeared without a trace. No one's heard a peep from him in two years now."

"I wish Dr. Eggman would disappear like that too. Maybe then we could . . ." Cream began dejectedly. Blaze frowned. She felt sorry for the teenager and the struggles that seemed to plague this universe, but before she could say anything the rabbit's features lightened up. "Oh well. You have to go through it but at least you get to choose if it's with a smile or a frown."

"That's an interesting way of seeing it. I like that."

"I liked it too. Sonic said that to me once," Cream informed, remembering the hot summer's day the hero had inspired her to keep faith. He was very good at that and she knew there was truth to his words.

"Yes, the ever optimistic Sonic the hedgehog," Blaze sighed with a half smile. She had an emotion in her voice that Cream could not readily identify, but it sounded disappointed.

"Are you upset with Sonic?" the rabbit asked bluntly.

"Well, I . . . I mean it's not . . ." Blaze said with a stammer. The expression of surprise followed by the slight reddening of the cat's cheeks only did more to concern Cream. Finally the princess pulled her words together. "What makes you think I'm upset with him?"

"You sounded upset when I mentioned him just now. Plus you did leave when he was trying to talk to you, not that I'm trying to pry, but it just seems that you're mad at him or . . . something," Cream explained.

Blaze sighed at her own transparency. Was she really that easy to read? She wasn't angry with Sonic per say, but a part of her wanted to be. As illogical as it seemed, even to herself, she had discovered the feeling she had once she saw the blue and pink hedgehogs together; it was jealously. This was followed closely by shame. Somewhere along the way she had fallen for the energetic blue hero and now felt a mix of emotions in the face of his marriage to Amy. In love with Sonic she might be, but a home wrecker she most certainly was not.

"I didn't mean to appear offended" she paused. She didn't want to share this information, what would be the point? Cream seemed to sense this as she held up a hand.

"You don't have to tell me Blaze if you don't want to, but maybe you would feel better if you talked to someone about it," Cream offered. The cat seemed to weigh this in her mind.

"Well, I want you to know that I am not angry with him just . . ."

"Disappointed," Cream finished. Blaze turned to face the rabbit with surprise. It appeared the young lady had more insight then she was letting on.

"Maybe. So, uh, what about that darker hedgehog that looks a little like Sonic, I don't think I know him?" the cat asked, hoping to change the subject. The rabbit knew what she was doing but decided to leave it alone.

"Oh, that was Mr. Shadow. We really didn't get time to introduce you to everyone, did we," Cream said with the distress of a hostess whose party was going poorly.

"That's alright; I did leave before we could speak. Was he the one you said had the Chaos Emerald?"

"Yes. I saw him use it when he saved my mother and me from Eggman's robots."

"Mm. The Chaos Emeralds might be my only way home. Will he be back?" Blaze questioned. The look on the teenager's face did nothing to reassure her.

"Well, Shadow, he is very . . . much to himself. The others say he's a loner but I think he's just temperamental sometimes. He might not come back for a while," Cream informed.

"A loner, huh?" the cat mused. So her first impression of the dark hedgehog was right. Blaze was very familiar with the role of recluse as she had served in it for quite some time and therefore also knew how hard it was to get assistance from one. It also appeared that she had upset him earlier; slimming down any chances for help. However, she had learned the value of teamwork and cooperation; that it was not only necessary but good. Could this universe's outsider learn the same lessons?

"Don't get him wrong though. I believe he means well. He helps us a lot, just at a distance most of the time," Cream stated, trying not to paint their more secluded group member in a bad light.

"I believe you. Maybe he'll be kind enough to help me too," Blaze smiled. Cream grinned back until they spotted something heading their way and fast. "It's that bat," Blaze stated as her keen eye sight focused on the flying figure. Cream peered ahead as well.

"It is Miss Rouge."

"Hurry! Follow me back to the workshop, Shadow says the robots are coming to attack us again!" the government agent shouted as she past the pair on her way to said destination. Blaze looked to Cream who looked back with mild shock. They both took off in the same direction Rouge was heading in.

_**o**_

Knuckles heaved up another broken beam on a badly burnt building, looking for anyone who might still be trapped inside. He and Espio had taken the east side of town while Vector and Charmy had taken the west end. Their assignment was to help people to safety and guide rescue crews to where they needed to be. The echidna had told Omega to search the town's outskirts for anymore stray robots and make sure they could not do anymore damage.

"It's all clear here Espio. Let's move on to the next building," He stated to his companion who was coming up behind him. As they walked further up the path in silence, Knuckles considered the chameleon walking next to him. It had been a while since he had seen the reptile or any of the Chaotix for that matter. It was just a matter of chance that he had gotten a hold of them in the next town over. Most of this was due to the fact that the detective agency tended to disband more often than not. In fact, the group had gotten back together just three months ago after another lengthy split-up. But on the other hand, that's how the guardian was able to stay in contact with the ninja. Espio usually came and visited him on the island during times the Chaotix Detective Agency was out of commission, though he didn't know how the chameleon could get up there. They had similar interests and therefore got along quite well.

"What do you think Eggman was after this time," Espio asked, pulling the echidna out of his thoughts.

"Your guess is as good as mine. That creep just doesn't make since anymore. I wish it was a knuckle sandwich though, because I'd be happy to help him out," Knuckles replied with malice as he cracked his namesakes. The ninja chuckled a bit, but was still distracted by the amount of destruction around them. No matter how many times he saw these images, it never took away the horror of it all. Heck, that's why it was so hard to stay focused on anything anymore. He quickly stopped himself; he couldn't afford to think like that. But that didn't mean he couldn't join in on the dark humor.

"Yes, I wouldn't mind having a moment alone with that madman either."

"Yeah. That reminds me. Were you guys able to find any new bases lately?" Knuckles asked. The chameleon shrugged and shook his head. Knuckles frowned and nodded in acknowledgement. He hadn't been able to locate any either as of late. That generally was a bad sign, considering they knew Eggman had to have several out there and no one was coming up on any new hideouts. It only meant that the doctor had gotten better at covering them up.

"How about the Chaos Emeralds? Have you and Rouge found any leads?" Espio inquired, looking to the guardian. Knuckles frowned at the thought of the bat.

"Nah, we didn't find anything. Besides me and her aren't exactly seeing eye to eye at the moment."

"Sorry to hear that Knuckles."

"Don't be. You know how we are," the echidna waved off the condolence. They both fell into silence once more.

"Help! Help me!"

They heard a weak cry come from the house up ahead. The pair raced to the structure in record time and with well practiced tracking skills, located the resident trapped under a pile of wreckage. Knuckles used his strength and lifted the heavy debris up and out of the way while Espio reached under and pulled out the shivering squirrel.

"My arm hurts really badly," the young rodent said in a raspy voice.

"Well that can't be good," Espio said as he moved out of the way so Knuckles could set the rubble back down. "We need to take her to the campsite."

"Yeah. Why don't you take her back and I'll look for any others. Just use the two-way to get back with me when you're done."

"Roger that," the ninja replied taking off in the direction of the medical site. Knuckles returned to the ruins, calling out for anybody who might need rescuing. They had already done an extraordinarily good job of evacuating the town and prevented the mass loss of life that could have accrued. Unfortunately, the same could not be said of the buildings themselves. Most of Kingsbury was either burnt to the ground, smoldering or going to be on fire. The snow was melted in some areas leaving muddy puddles while other patches had refrozen giving the landscape a dreary appearance. It was at this the guardian allowed a hollow sigh to escape. He knew this city had really dodged a bullet. Several other attacks have left hundreds dead. In fact he was still half expecting to walk up on a graveyard, like he'd done so many times before.

"One day Eggman, one day," he whispered angrily as he passed a demolished schoolhouse. Nothing could have persuaded the guardian from quitting his quest of bringing down the mad doctor once and for all now. Not more robots, not more attacks and not anymore empty pledges. Oddly enough it was the last of these that had given the powerful echidna so much trouble in the past. By nature he was a trusting soul and generally believed there was good in everyone. Years ago he had held that Dr. Robotnik could change. It was a slim chance, he knew, but deep down he believed it was true. Now he cursed himself for even entertaining such a thought; how could he be so stupid?

"Ah what am I doing?" he asked himself before adding with a wry smile, "Heck, Sonic's right. Dwelling on the past really doesn't help. Man I hate when that guy's right." However, the moment he cleared his head of self-doubt, he sensed something else, something he hadn't felt in a long time. It was the unmistakable energy of a Chaos Emerald. He tried to remain focused as he cautiously walked ahead, looking for its location. Still, it was hard for him to contain his excitement at the prospect of holding one of those gems again. The energy was getting stronger; he was getting closer. The more intense, the nearer he was. His face lit up the instant he spotted the precious stone laying a few yards away in a puddle of water. He raced forward and just as his hand wrapped around the Emerald he heard . . .

"A chain is only as strong as its weakest link."

The guardian jumped at the sound, bringing the Chaos Emerald to the safety of both hands.

"Who's there?" he demanded.

"In physical strength you're no dummy," the recognizable voice continued. Knuckles paused as he could now pick out the familiar message. He glanced to his left and saw that one of the beaten robot's communication systems must have still worked. "But when it comes to critical judgment . . . well let's just say the mighty Knuckles has some trouble rolling with the punches."

"Shut up you piece of junk," the echidna said with a sneer as he gave the machine a good smack sending into silence.

"Ah, still as volatile as ever I see."

The guardian whirled around to see another fallen bot relying Eggman's personalized memo to him, but it had never said that before. "Would you believe me if I said that I wasn't behind all this?" it continued. He growled in annoyance and decided to just head out of the area. The robots were essentially harmless. For a moment, Knuckles wondered how the bots could still squawk; being that they were scraped at this point. It didn't take long for him to find the answer to this mystery however as he passed more robots. Each time he got close to one it would crackle its voice box to life. It had to be the Chaos Emerald; that was the only logical explanation as he had gone by plenty of downed mechas without the same reaction before he had the gem. But still, this didn't fix the problem of getting away from that irritating voice.

"No, too bad it would have been great fun. I could have fooled you into believing that it was some other crazed lunatic after revenge and they were using my good name as a ruse to pull it off. Oh well, remember our first encounter, Knuckles. It was so easy to manipulate you then. Even after that it appeared I could tell any old sob story to the echidna and he would bite."

"Arg!" Knuckles shouted angrily as he punched the hunk of metal beside him. Undesirably, another just replaced it.

"Oh and stealing those emeralds from you was a walk in the park sometimes. How many times did you turn your back on allies to 'do the right thing' only to find out you were completely wrong?"

Knuckles quickened his pace. He hated these stupid messages and the sooner he got away from these robots the better.

"But seriously now, it seems you are a bit wise to my tricks."

"Yeah, wise and tired of," the guardian mumbled as he kicked that robot over as well.

"Are you still running around with your buddy Sonic and his gang by chance?"

Knuckles stopped. He had never heard this part before either, usually because he would have destroyed the communication device in a rage by now. He slowed down and decided to at least hear out the transmission considering he was not in any life threatening danger at the moment.

"If I were you I'd quit goofing off and keep a close eye on those gems, especially the Master Emerald. Imagine the devastation or restoration that power source has. We wouldn't want that to fall into the wrong hands, now would we?" the communication ended leaving only the sound of dead static on the speaker. Knuckles was not only angered by the evil doctor's words but alarmed. In all the commotion he had unintentionally allowed his lifelong duty to hit the back burner. Was that madman after the Master Emerald? All of the Chaos Emeralds, except for the one he was holding, had gone missing; what if Eggman had the rest?

The echidna's gaze was sent through the smoke, towards the hazy image of Angel Island hovering off in the distance, just above the shore line of Lake Whisper. He had brought the floating island in low so he could help fight, but in doing so did he inadvertently open it up for attack. Being the guardian of the Master Emerald, he was naturally in tuned with the mystical gemstone. Nothing felt out of place, but that gave him all the more reason to correct his oversight. He needed to get back to the workshop and ask Tails to give him a lift back to the island. He would radio Espio later and let him know where he went. With that, he ran towards the path that would take him back to home base.

_**o**_

"This is taking too long. I'm waiting," Sonic griped as he impatiently tapped a foot, arms crossed. He was positioned by Tails, who was struggling to get supplies out of his workshop closet. The fox scowled at the hedgehog's 'eagerness' to get back in the action. The blue hero had convinced his wife and best friend that he should be out there helping the others clean up instead of twiddling his thumbs and now Tails was getting him some rescue supplies to take on the mission, albeit reluctantly. To be honest, the mechanic wanted the hedgehog to stay and rest, but there was no stopping the speedster once he got like this. He was just about to shoot a remark back when he was beaten to the punch.

"Sonic the Hedgehog! Maybe if you'd quit complaining and start helping him out you wouldn't be waiting as long," Amy scolded from her spot on the makeshift bed. Tails couldn't help but chuckle a bit. The great hero being reprimanded like a small child was too funny. Sonic mumbled something unintelligible, but had the ability to look apologetic even when he was rolling his eyes. He knew that they didn't want him to go and he did appreciate their concern, but all he wanted to do was help, not to mention alleviate his boredom. As the hero reached over to take up a box, the doors to the workshop burst open allowing a blast of cold air inside. It was followed by Rouge, Blaze and Cream.

"What's going on . . ." Amy said with a start.

"Shadow's on the phone. He thinks there's going to be another attack, and it's coming back here!" Rouge blurted out quickly as she landed in the middle of the room.

"Oh no," Solana breathed as she hopped down from her helicopter.

"Tails, he wants to talk with you," the bat stated holding the phone out for the already rapidly approaching fox.

"Me?"

Everyone came around as Tails put the device to his ear. All they could hear was murmuring as they waited anxiously for the report. Finally Amy couldn't handle it anymore.

"What's he saying? What's happening?"

The fox only motioned for her to remain quiet as he listened intently.

"It's .com," Tails said into the mouthpiece. A few seconds later the young hero twirled his namesakes, giving him lift, and flew over to his computer. He gestured for the others to come over as he sat down at the workstation.

"Rouge, do you have speaker on this phone?"

"Who doesn't?" the bat said as she reached over and pressed the button on the side of her cell.

"Shadow can you still hear me?" Tails asked as he logged into his laptop.

"Yes. We sent it. Have you received it yet?" the unmistakable voice of the ultimate life form came in loud and clear.

"Yeah, I got the files," Tails answered as he typed away at his keyboard, "If you don't mind Shadow, I would like to speak with uh. . ."

"Her name is Alyson. Here," the group heard Shadow say before a new voice came over the speaker.

"Hi, I'm Alyson."

"Hello Alyson, my name's Tails. Can you give me a little bit of background on the information you sent me? I'm seeing a lot of charts and maps but what is it you _**need**_ me to see?"

"Well, you see Shadow and I came across this program and it seems to be keeping track of all the attacks that Dr. Eggman has made in the past on cities and towns. We just found out that Kingsbury was listed twice, but we also found what looks to be like grids or charts of some kind . . ."

"Flight paths. It seems that the attacks come from different places each time. Sonic, we could track each of these patterns to a different base, there all here," Tails said turning in excitement to look to his friend, who came in for a closer look. Sonic whistled in amazement at the critical bits of information, even though he couldn't understand a lick of it. However, his mind was reined in by the mention of Kingsbury.

"What about the attack Shadow was talking about?" Sonic asked urgently. Everyone chattered in concern.

"Right," Tails focused as he went back to reviewing information.

"Wow, flight patterns. I don't think I would have ever thought of that," Alyson said over the phone.

"Focus," Shadow could be heard in the background. Tails studied the graphs and figures in front of him, the fox's eyes suddenly grew wide.

"Alyson, check your lists again. According to the data you sent me, the place this new attack is coming from is a lot closer to Kingsbury than the last."

"Sure thing."

There was a pause and Tails put on a thoughtful expression.

"Why would Eggman come back and attack the same place twice. Everything is already destroyed and the people are evacuated. He's never done that before, unless he plans to build here," the fox said with concern in his voice.

"Well at least this time he won't catch us by surprise. Let's get the old plan a going," Sonic winked. Tails smiled.

"Solana, can you finish tuning the Tornado up."

"Yes, by all means," the dhole obliged heading over to the jet.

"Sonic we need to warn . . ."

"Tails! It says arrived at 13:45; they're already there!" Alyson shouted. Everyone froze.

"Hey everybody. Look what I found, a Chaos Emerald," Knuckles exclaimed happily as he came into the open doorway. The others looked to him with dismayed faces and the echidna frowned. "What's wrong?"

"The robots are on their way back," Tails said as Knuckles took a step in their direction, "Wait you found a Chaos Emerald?"

Suddenly, an enormous blast from outside rocked the entire workshop, throwing everyone hard to the floor.

**Author's Note: Nothing to really say except here it is, Chapter six. Thank you all for the reviews. I know this one has a nice cliffhanger at the end as well, but at least they got a little bit of down time.**


	7. Chapter 7

_**In Due Season**_

Chapter VII

_The Path to Peace is Someday Neigh_

The group groaned in pain as Kimi began crying. Amy hastily got to her feet and ran to the crib for her baby. With that, another explosion ripped through the area, hurling Knuckles from the doorway headlong into a tumble along the ground, flames licking at his heels. Rouge quickly flew forward to catch the guardian before he made contact with the hard cement floor again. Slightly singed, he cracked open an eye to see his rescuer.

"Thanks Rouge," he said sincerely.

"Anytime handsome," Rouge said with a gleam in her eye. Blaze saw the impending danger the flames posed and charged ahead to snuff them out. Just as the fire died and the smoke cleared a large metal object knocked the feline back with incredible force. She plummeted backwards head over heels as the thing that struck her stepped inside.

"Blaze!" Sonic shouted as he rushed over and helped the downed heroine back to her feet. She couldn't help but feel warmed by his touch and concern, but quickly pushed her misguided feelings aside.

"I'm fine."

"Good, because here we go again," he exclaimed, pushing her off in one direction while he went in an other just before the object passed between them.

"What is it?" Cream said in a panic as she got a clear look at the robotic creature. It was something she had never seen before and it looked more chilling than any of Eggman's other robots. It was three times taller than her even though it stood on all fours. It had the body of a large cat or dog, but it didn't have a head, just what appeared to be a giant red eye in-between the front shoulder blades. It did have a whip like tail and strange hooked feet however. The rabbit wasn't the only one to notice the strange machine.

"I don't know what it is and I don't care. Its going down!" Knuckles yelled as he leapt down from Rouge's grasp, ready to hit it with a ramming blow. The creature reacted quickly to the attack and lashed out at the guardian with its razor sharp tail, sending the echidna back across the room screaming in pain. After the assault on Knuckles the robot remained perfectly still. Even when Rouge flew back down to rest next to the now bleeding echidna the creature showed little interest. No one moved.

"Guys I think . . ." Tails began until the bot turned its large eye in his direction. He clamped his mouth shut. The robot didn't take any action against him and even turned away. The genius' features were pale at the scare, but he continued. "We might want to get out of here while it's trying to get through whatever it's processing."

"Sounds good to me," Amy whispered as she clutched Kimi close.

"Cream, you're closest to the door. Be careful, but see if you can get out," Tails said. The rabbit followed directions and without incident was able to make it out of the workshop with Cheese. The fox quirked an eyebrow; this was indeed bizarre. It wasn't attacking them. He watched as it kept turning its body from side to side, its eye changing from yellow to red to green, but never becoming threatening.

"Amy, you next," Tails instructed, still keeping a close eye on the robot's movements. The moment the pink hedgehog shifted her weight to go, the creature gave a low, intimidating growl. She froze.

"Leave us alone," she whispered worryingly, clutching Kimi in one arm and preparing her hammer in the other. It took a step in her direction and that was all it took for Sonic to react. He ran full speed into one of the robot's legs, toppling it to one side. It let out an ear piercing howl as it rebalanced itself and turned its gaze to the blue hedgehog before it. The eye was fully green now, no switching, as it raced towards him with a vengeance. It missed its target, slamming into the far wall, but did not relent on its attack like it had done with Knuckles. Instead, it turned back around and jabbed at the speedster in quick succession with its clasped feet. He dodged each one with ease, but damage was being done to the small building due to the robot's size and ferocity. The hero took notice of this and decided to lead the fray outside so that he could get in some better hits and prevent anyone else from getting hurt.

"Come on ya metal mutt, let's take you for a walk," he yelled as he ran outside, just past the doorway. With the same intensity it began to follow. "Tails get the others organized I'll keep this thing . . . busy?" He halted once he noticed the creature had stopped in the doorway seeming to pine over who it was going to kill, him or the group behind it.

"I'll take care of this . . . thing!" Blaze started as she tried gearing herself up for combat. She had all the Sol Emeralds and had used them in the past to end battles quickly, so when the powerful gems did not respond to her beckoning, shock and dismay were easy to read on her face. "I can't use the Sol Emeralds. I . . . I don't understand!"

"Hey you hunk of junk, look at me!" Sonic screamed as he saw it try to take a step back inside. He jumped up into the air and landed a spin attack on its shoulder. It thrashed at him with its tail and grabbed at him with its sharp appendages. For how large it was the thing moved incredibly fast and Sonic was knocked down by one of the blows. It let out another electronic wail which was answered by another cry just like it off in the distance.

"There's another one," Rouge whispered. Sonic scarcely had time to register there were two of them as the robot over him began digging at him with predator like concentration. Knuckles wiped the last of the blood from his afflicted face and stood up.

"I'm going to help Sonic, anyone else who wants to join me can," he stated gruffly, heading towards the door. Blaze was ahead of him as she had already made it to the doorway and was trying to draw the robots' attentions away from the hedgehog.

"Solana, help me get the hanger doors open. We need to get the X Tornado and the Blizzard out there so we can help. Amy we still need to warn the city and campsite, but . . ." Tails looked hesitantly to the mother holding the baby hedgehog who was still crying loudly.

"I'll take Amy and Kimi in my ship. It's just out back. Maybe we can find reinforcements, too," Rouge offered as she waved for the pink hedgehog to follow her to the back door. Amy looked back at the others who were fighting off the deadly monsters only a few yards away. Her eyes locked onto Sonic, who appeared to be taking on the brunt of all the attacks. She knew his tendency towards recklessness better than anyone there and her heart was torn as she wanted to help fight, but also insure the safety of her baby.

"Oh God, keep him safe, please," Amy whispered a prayer as she finally went with the white bat.

_**o**_

"Hello, can anyone hear me?" Alyson cried desperately into the cell phone; no reply.

"I have to leave," Shadow stated as he walked towards the door. He had heard the commotion before the phone became unresponsive.

"Where are you going?" Alyson asked more out of habit because she already knew the answer.

"I have to find a way back there so I can be of assistance," Shadow informed dryly. Truthfully, he felt guilty for leaving the group to begin with and now wished he hadn't.

"How, its miles from here Shadow and you're in no condition to make that trip there on your own."

"Doesn't matter, I'm going," the hedgehog stated coldly.

"Well of course, but that's why I'm coming with you. Don't give me that attitude mister; you came back barely able to stand. I can drive us part of the way, at least until you get some of your strength back. Please, let me help," Alyson reasoned. The ultimate life form gave her an unreadable expression. Her words reminded him of what Rouge had said earlier; the cost of not having backup. He sighed before the tiny trace of a smirk could be found on his features.

"Fine, but we take the sports car, not that beat-up mini-van. Deal?"

He could see the indignation in her eyes as he knew she loved that beautiful old family vehicle. He also noted hesitation as he also knew how protective she was of that red muscle car. However, she saw that self-assured grin on her companion's face and was willing to do anything to wipe it off.

"It's a deal," she stated, a smile appearing once his vanished.

"Fine, come on then, let's go," the dark hedgehog directed and as an afterthought added, "Have you already downloaded the program to the hard drive?"

"Yes, why?"

"Bring the flash drive with us."

Within minutes the pair were flying out of the city limits of Emerald Cove and heading south towards the intended destination. Alyson was going as fast as the law would permit and maybe even more so as Shadow kept pushing for speed. Kingsbury was a four hour drive away at normal speed and at least two and a half at the speed Alyson was going. Nevertheless it wasn't fast enough for the black hedgehog. After the first five minutes the ultimate life form was insisting she speed up, after the next ten he was practically pressing his face up against the windshield in frustration, demanding the vehicle go faster. The next few moments and he was hanging out the window declaring hatefully he could push the car there quicker than it was going.

"Look, I'm going as fast as I can, plus you're supposed to be conserving your energy so you can run the rest of the way, remember."

"This is worthless! I believe I am rested enough. My apologies but this is where I am making my exit. I'll take the data to Tails from here. I want you to head back to the city," he stated, looking to her as he rolled the window further down. Alyson sighed knowing there was no changing his mind.

"Alright, but open the glove box first," she directed without taking her eyes off the road. Shadow quirked and eyebrow but did as she asked, releasing the door to the glove box. There were napkins, a few old maps and ketchup packets galore, but what sat on top of all this is what caught him by surprise; a decent sized, black semi-automatic handgun. He looked to her with disbelief as he pulled the gun out. "I want you to take it. The magazines are under the passenger seat. The bullets can pierce through metals too," she continued.

"You own this?"

"Yes, ever since I started working with you, I realized a woman's got to protect herself," she smirked. Shadow frowned.

"I don't want to take this with me. I've dealt with guns in the past, it's not my style; too messy for one," he stated setting the pistol down along with the unpleasant memories that came with it.

"Well, I'm sure dying isn't your style either and if you're going to do this with how . . . off you've been lately it'll get messy too. Take it. Look you don't necessarily have to use it, just have it with you, it would make me feel better, please," she pleaded. The dark hedgehog scowled, but picked the firearm back up, reaching under the seat to gather the cartridges.

"What will you use to defend yourself?"

"Don't worry; I have another one at home. Two for one special," she quipped.

"For someone who supports peace and love, I never pictured you owning any of these."

"Well, I support peace and love but not robots, so let's just leave it at that. Now go!"

Shadow nodded and with that hopped out the window with ease, his jet activated shoes carrying him well past the high speeds of the red automobile and down the road out of sight. Alyson slowed her car down as she watched the black streak disappear.

"Good luck Shadow."

For his part, the dark hedgehog looked back to make sure that Alyson was indeed turning to head back to Emerald Cove. He didn't want her to get hurt or worse and even though she was a very rational human being, people did crazy things out of concern. He found a bit of humor in this as that was exactly what he was doing, running head long into battle knowing full well about his limitations. He turned to face forward once he was satisfied that he was not being followed. He tucked the handgun back and raced to his destination. It didn't take long for him to reach the road that would take him straight into the town of Kingsbury and it took even less time for trouble to reach him.

The hedgehog heard an ear-splitting wail come from behind him, a sound that reminded him of baying wolves. He stopped and whirled around to see a large robot charging right at him with unbelievable velocity. He had never seen a machine like this before, but had little time to think on that as its giant yellow eye was trained right on him and ready to mow him down. He dodge rolled to his right just in time to let the creature barrel past him. However, it quickly recovered its pace and rotated to face him again, arms extending towards the hedgehog, trying to land a blow. Shadow easily dodged its attacks, but it was relentless in its pursuit.

"Chaos Spear!" he shouted, letting lose a burst of energy into the robot's direction. It backed up, but Shadow immediately regretted the action as he felt his energy levels flux dangerously. He couldn't afford to collapse now, so he decided to skate off the main road and into the thick evergreens, hoping to lose the robot in the foliage. He weaved in-between trees and brush, listening to the massive thing behind him cracking through trunks and uprooting growth in search of him. The idea had potential, but he soon found that he was being hindered by the plants as well. Maybe he could go higher up and . . .

"Arg!" Shadow shouted as something sharp lashed out and struck him across the chest, sending him to the ground on his backside. He growled in pain and anger as he looked up to see another robot of the same model in front of him, it's whip like tail circling around for another blow. The ultimate life form leapt forward between the robot's legs just as the bot chasing him appeared out of the brush to receive the thrashing intended for him. Both machines clamored into each other, confusion in their actions as they tried to relocate their escaping quarry. Shadow gave the creatures one more glance as they righted themselves before he skated off in the direction of the city hoping a plan would come to him soon.

_**o**_

"Blaze, Now!" Knuckles shouted from his spot at the base of a tree he had just shoved over. The falling log was set a fire by the pyrokinetic feline who was positioned only a few yards away from the guardian. The fiery tree trunk hissed through the air as it fell into one of the robot's currently trying to capture Sonic. The oak successfully pinned the robot down, causing the metal creature to screech in agitation as it struggled to lift itself back up. The blue hedgehog crawled away from the deranged monster and flames only to be swept up by the claws of another robot. He spun fiercely in its grip until the friction of his quills caused one of its joints to move out of place, allowing him to shoot through back to the ground. For the past thirty minutes, the group of heroes had been playing a deadly game of keep-away.

All the strange robotic wolves, as Sonic called them, were frantically running around clawing and lashing out at everything, but especially the blue speedster. It didn't matter what the group did or didn't do, the hedgehog could never catch a break from the assaults. Sonic had tried to evade them by running off, but was followed or found quickly by the bots. He had tried working with his friends, only to find that he was bringing the danger closer to them. Knuckles had even given him the Chaos Emerald, but it appeared the added power of the gem gave him little edge over the creatures. Worst of all, there were now four of them and he was riding on pure adrenaline fumes. He was sporting quite a few new bruises and scrapes, and his weary limbs added to his fading reflexes. He just couldn't keep pumping much longer.

"I'm Sonic the hedgehog, not Sonic the lawn chair. Get off me!" he yelled up at the bot.

"Knuckles, let's take that one out," Blaze directed, pointing to the one holding Sonic down, something that appeared to be the prime directive. The echidna nodded as he ran towards it, the cat following closely behind. Sonic smiled as they rammed the creature off of him and into a nearby ditch. He quickly got to his feet, trying to be on guard for the next attack, but a two on one assault by the remaining bots caught him. One knocked the hedgehog into a nearby tree with its massive arm while the other rapidly pinned him down using its large foot. Like the many times before, it lowered what would have been its head in his direction. Panic rose in him, due mostly to the fact he had no clue what its intentions were, but this time he had the presence of mind to realize that the bot wasn't pressing down on him all that hard.

If it had wanted to kill him it could have easily done so by crushing him, but it didn't. Maybe there was more to this then he was seeing. _Creak_. He looked down on the robot to notice what appeared to be a hinged door opening on the thing's chest, just under its large green orb of an eye; a door that looked more alarmingly like a mouth. That's when he decided there was nothing to see here!

"Okay robomutt, I don't think I need any puppy kisses today," he grunted as he squirmed out of its grip and ran underneath it. As the robot maneuvered to get him, the blue hedgehog decided to keep to the bot's underside. It wrangled around in circles trying to get to the hero, who was in turn trying not to get stepped on. The other robot came over and tried to flush Sonic out from under the other, but only managed to trip itself and its comrade. Sonic dashed out from beneath them as they hit the ground. "Well, that was easy."

"Look out Sonic!"

He heard to his side. He looked over to see the robot in the ditch rising up with Blaze and Knuckles on its back. Simultaneously he also noticed the two bots in front of him getting to their feet and heard the roar of the fourth now free from its fiery restraint.

"Aw shoot," he said as they all looked to him. But, before anyone had time to act, something fast flew out of the woods and collided with the blue hedgehog. All that could be seen was a cobalt blue and charcoal black mass skid across the slushy ground, coming to rest only after it smacked up against a nearby tree. Even the robots paused to gage the new circumstances. There were now two sets of quills heaped in the snow, each slowly sitting up and shaking off the effects of the impact. Sonic looked over to see his darker double.

"Shadow?" he asked in mild disbelief. The ebony hedgehog looked to him with shock also, though it was more out of the fact that he had just hit something by mistake rather than the hero himself. However, their meeting was cut short by the appearance of Shadow's pursuers. Sonic frowned. "Great, you brought more party-crashers. Never can make a quiet entrance can you."

"This coming from a guy who screams 'Aw yeah, time to rock and roll' every time he comes into a room," Shadow said disdainfully as he rose to his feet. Sonic did the same, albeit weakly. Shadow took notice. It appeared that the hero was in the same weakened state as he; not exactly a stroke of luck.

"Hey down there."

They both looked up to Knuckles and Blaze coming in to land next to them. Knuckles spoke up again.

"It looks like their confused again."

The two hedgehogs glanced around to see that the robots were looking at them but not making a move for the group.

"Their eyes are switching too," Blaze informed, watching the green and yellow color patterns.

"Is there a reason why they're doing that?" Shadow inquired as he gave the group a side glance, not wanting to turn his back on the creatures.

"No, but it's good of them to give us little break," Sonic huffed in relief. He took a deep breath as he allowed the exhaustion to shutter through his body. Blaze frowned at this. She lifted her hands and caused a high wall of fire to surge up between them and the robots. The flames had curbed the robots advances in the past.

"They've been after Sonic mostly," she stated, looking to Shadow, who was staring back at her with a hidden expression of intrigue; he didn't know the feline had power over fire. He quickly turned away. Blaze, on the other hand, found it uncanny how similar the dark hedgehog appeared to Sonic now that she could have a closer look. However the differences between them were quite noticeable as well.

"Guys, this is a great opportunity to attack them. Shadow's here and they're out of it," Knuckles insisted slamming his fist together. Everyone looked to the echidna incredulously. "What? I don't see ya'll coming up with anything."

"For one, Knuckles, let's go hit em' again doesn't qualify as coming up with something," Sonic deadpanned.

"Well, it's better than just standing around, letting you catch your breath, old man," the echidna barked back.

"Hey!" Blaze interjected, catching even Shadow's attention for a moment, "Fighting amongst ourselves isn't going to help. It is true Knuckles, none of our attacks are doing any damage so maybe it would be best to pull back and come up with a different strategy."

"Come on! If we move those things are just going to attack us again anyway," the guardian exasperated.

"So then maybe taking a breather isn't such a bad idea, knucklehead," Sonic retorted.

"Why you . . ." Knuckles growled, his temper getting the best of him

"Guys . . ." Blaze tried to intervene, not privy to the long history of disagreements between the hedgehog and echidna.

"Shut up, all of you!" Shadow ordered.

"You can't tell me what to . . ." Knuckles began until Shadow turned a harsh eye on him.

"Look," the darker hedgehog directed as he pointed to the robots. Their orbs had all turned green at the same time and they were now stepping closer to them with no regard for the waning fire. Sonic watched as his buddies got into an offensive stance in front of him. He could always count on the help of his friends in any situation, but he also knew that he could count on those robots being ruthless in their attacks. He already knew Knuckles and Blaze were tiring from the battle and judging by the fact Shadow ran full speed away from them served to inform him that they were too much for the darker hedgehog too. They needed to come up with a plan. There had to be a weak point; something they could exploit to their advantage. He had to locate that vulnerable spot. The others stared in surprise as Sonic bolted past them towards the group of machines.

"Sonic! Wait!" Blaze shouted as she quickly wiped the flames clear of the path of the hero as he took one of the robots head on. The mismatched group of heroes rushed after the blue hedgehog, trying to gage what he was doing or what they needed to do. They watched in guarded hesitation as the robotic hounds gathered around Sonic, who was currently zooming all around the exterior of one of the robots. Shadow paused as Blaze and Knuckles ran ahead. The two guardians of their respected worlds were knocked out of the fray as the bots returned to trying to snag Sonic. The black hedgehog decided to take his speedy rival's approach. He ran into the conflict, coming up alongside Sonic as they traveled over the outside of the robot's body, dodging the many whips and metallic limbs reaching out at them.

"What are we doing?" he asked.

"Looking for a weak spot," Sonic answered, eyes scanning every inch he ran over. However, before more could be said, Shadow was swept off by a hooked foot, sending him hurtling to the ground. He flipped upright and skidded perfectly to a stop on his feet. Nevertheless, Sonic had taken notice that the robot he was running on had turned its proverbial head away from the other robot's attack on Shadow, closing what appeared to be a clear lid on the eye. In wondering if that might be a point of interest, it hit him. That giant eye had to be susceptible to attack when open. He ran to the front just as it removed the lid and gave the robot a real good belt across its electronic lens. The robot shrieked and reared up, slamming the nuisance away from it with its front legs. Sonic hit the ground hard.

"The eyes, we have to hit the eyes when they're open," he shouted as all the machines turned on him fiercely. They covered him completely, giving little access for intervention as they howled in enthusiasm. Knuckles and Blaze hurried back to the fallen hero and tried to make it through the huddle of metal and sharp edges, their shouts mixing in with the rest of the commotion.

"What the heck does he mean by the eyes? We've hit it a hundred times," Knuckles yelled.

_Click. Bang!_ The sound of a gun fired came on the scene, ringing through the cold air and echoing off the trees. One of the robots lurched back in mock pain as it pawed at its now, shattered eye. The echidna and cat fell silent as they looked over to Shadow who was still training the handgun on the hoard of robots.

"Stand back," he voiced coldly aiming at another robot and firing again sending that robot into the same state as the other. He sent several shots into the pack until he had successfully displaced them all, revealing a battered and slightly confused Sonic. The darker hedgehog nodded for the pair to get the hero while he continued to fire round after round at the robots. The bullets, though high caliber, were doing no damage to the robot's thick metal hide and even with the loss of their green orbs they still tried to pursue the group. The high speed projectiles were working as a distraction though as Shadow followed up behind the others. He kept firing the semi-automatic weapon, reloading it with another magazine when out of ammunition and keeping the machines at bay.

"Are we heading back to the workshop?" Blaze shouted over the sounds of gunshots and ricocheting metal.

"We can't," Knuckles sputtered, "I don't think they'd be ready for all this."

"I think you'd be surprised," Sonic smiled as he heard the familiar roar of a jet's engine. Shadow relinquished his offensive position once the fire power of the X Tornado was made known through the spray of laser fire onto the robots. Further relief came in the sound of a chopper's beating blades in the distance as the Blizzard's rope ladder came into view.

"Come quickly," Solana could be heard shouting from her intercom system from above. Knuckles was the first to leap up on the ladder climbing it mid-way to give more room for Sonic and Blaze to hold on. Shadow managed to grab the tail end even though it was swaying terribly. The four held on as the dhole pulled the aircraft up. The robotic wolves growled in frustration as they jumped up trying to reach the ascending heroes. The group climbed into the safety of the helicopter's cabin giving the circling robots beneath them another glance.

"Phew, right in the nick of time Sol," Sonic breathed as he collapsed into one of the seats. Shadow sat down beside him silently.

"Yes, sorry about delay. It took so long for us to get the hanger doors open after you left. They were frozen shut," the pilot said. Blaze peered out the window as she slid the door shut to see the robots were still following the chopper closely from the ground.

"They're not giving up. They're still following us," she voiced.

"Solana, this is Tails over," the radio crackled.

"This is Sol, we have a situation here. It appears the machines are not going to be letting us land any where soon, over."

There was a pause before the radio crackled to life again.

"I see what you mean. Knuckles is there with you, ask him if the floating island is close by, over."

"Yeah it is. It's right off of Lake Whisper," the echidna reported, hoping this was going in the direction he thought it was. He had gotten side-tracked from his original intent of checking on the Master Emerald after all.

"Knuckles says it is near Lake Whisper, over."

"Great! We can land on the island, if that's okay with you Knuckles? Uh, over."

"It's fine by me. I wanted to head back home a long time ago anyway," the guardian stated as he leaned up against the wall. While the fox, dhole and echidna chattered back and forth, Blaze took a seat across from the two hedgehogs. She looked to Sonic who had his eyes closed at the moment. She couldn't help but think about his emerald eyes, the first time she saw them. That was probably what attracted her first to the hero, his kind yet playful eyes. Suddenly he opened them and caught her by surprise as he looked right at her. She was grateful for the poor lighting as a familiar heat colored her cheeks. He didn't seem upset that she was staring at him though, he just smiled and winked.

"Thanks for helping out, especially since it was an unplanned trip for you and all," he grinned.

"Just returning the favor, you did the same for me after all," she smiled back.

"Oh yeah, I did," the blue hedgehog chuckled lightly, though there appeared to be something weighing on his mind as he seemed to look past her.

"Is everything okay?" she asked, concerned. He shook his head and looked at her directly again.

"Oh, uh-huh. Sorry, but I need to talk to Solana real quick," he replied, standing up and limping towards the cockpit. The feline could hear him ask about Amy and Kimi; his family. She felt awful about her misplaced affections and knew she had to draw the line within herself. Sonic was married now and even though she had discovered this longingly unnoticed crush on him, there was something innately unattractive about a taken man.

_Click._ Blaze flicked an ear in the direction of the noise. There was another series of mechanical sounds and she turned her line of sight towards Shadow, who was busy unloading the weapon he had used earlier. In her dimension, the only apparatus like that was used by Eggman Nega. As she quirked an eyebrow at the dark hedgehog, Knuckles snorted.

"Could you not mess with that thing in here, Shadow," he stated with agitation. Sonic glanced back and only rolled his eyes heavenward before shaking his head.

"I'm sure he knows what he's doing, knucklehead. Besides he's not listening to you, anyway," Sonic replied quietly, before turning back to Solana.

It was true; Shadow didn't appear to hear them or, perhaps, choose to ignore them. Honestly, he couldn't really hear Knuckles or Sonic, he couldn't hear anything except the haunting echoes of the empty firearm he was holding. The sound kept playing and replaying in his mind's ear as he stared hard at it. Everything around him faded into unimportance. Such a uniquely human invention, as no other type of people had found a use for such a device. Even the few groups that had exploited the weapon only got their hands on it through human involvement. The tool itself could be used for protection or assault, for aid or destruction, for good or evil. But one thing could be said indefinitely about it, its main purpose in design and deed was to send out a bullet at high speed to whatever target the bearer so choose.

Bang, a practice disc at the G.U.N. shooting range. Pop, an aluminum can on the fence. Pew, the hide of one of Eggman's robots. These were things he'd seen guns do, decent things. Still, he had no desire to use one. He placed this on the fact that he never needed to; he could use chaos energy, which was much more effective in his opinion. However, as the sound of shots rang out in his head, the real reason for avoiding the weapon snapped into focus. His mind couldn't stop with the firearm's decent actions, it wouldn't. He remembered running down the corridor's with her. Twang, off a wall meant for him. Memories of her closing off sections of their space colony home. Smash, the glass doors as they tried to escape. She was trying to save him. Rat-a-tat-tat, ripping the air. And she succeed, but at such cost. _Shadow_! right through her back. _Shadow_ . . . her last breath.

He dropped the gun, vaguely conscious of the clattering it made on the floor, but clearly aware of things that took place decades ago; things he thought he had forgotten. Maria was shot and killed. A quick blast, a cry of pain followed by the whisper of his name, _Shadow_. How could he have used that thing? _Shadow, you have to forgive . . ._ How he wished he could take it back now. _Shadow, please listen_. Why couldn't he save her? _Shadow . . . it's okay. _Why didn't he just leave the gun with Alyson? _Shadow?_ Why did Maria have to die?

"Shadow!"

Startled, he looked up in alarm, briefly stuck between his memories of the past and the present. He came face to face with Rouge, who was giving him an equally upset expression.

"Rouge? How . . . ?" Shadow finally spoke as he looked around his surroundings. What happened to Sonic and the others? The helicopter was silent and it appeared they had landed. He was both shocked and troubled by the fact he had become so disconnected to his surroundings.

"I've been trying to get your attention for the past two minutes, handsome. The others told me you were still in here."

"I don't remember us landing," he stated, bowing his head away from her, breaking eye contact. Rouge shook her head and smiled.

"Sonic was right, you really are out of it."

"I'm fine," Shadow claimed as he stood to his feet.

"Uh-huh, that's why you were sitting in a stationary helicopter, staring into nothing for the better part of thirty minutes," Rouge replied dryly.

"Let's go," he sneered in response as he tried making his way to the doors. That's when his foot inadvertently kicked the handgun he dropped across the floor. He froze, but Rouge looked down at the object and bent down to pick it up.

"Ah, I see," she observed quietly, bringing the gun up into view, "Forgetting something?" Shadow again didn't give her direct eye contact, but took the weapon from her hands and exited the aircraft. She knew her ex-partner was never very fond of firearms and wondered why he would have one in the first place. She was also very aware that Shadow was not the easiest guy to pan out and that he only explained what he wanted to explain. So she decided to let it go and followed him outside, but was rewarded with an answer much quicker than she expected for her patience.

"It doesn't belong to me. Aly- . . . a friend insisted I take it with me. It belongs to them," he stated frankly as the two started walking.

"Is it Alyson's then," Rouge divulged, knowing she would get a rise from the hedgehog. She was right. He turned to her in shock.

"How did you know about . . .?"

"Come on Shadow, I'm the top spy in the agency. I wasn't going to let you fall off the radar that easily," she smirked. He glared at her, knowing he should be mad at the invasion of his privacy, but he felt something quite different. With his hazy grasp of emotions due to his short time of experiencing them, the ultimate life form had trouble placing this one. He felt cared for by the woman standing beside him and reciprocated those feelings. Whether he had realized it or not, the strange sentiment growing for Rouge over the years had been love and he didn't have a clue how to deal with it. He just wanted to leave . . . now.

"Well, it was Alyson's and I need to get it back to her," he stated firmly. Rouge sighed as she took that as a sign that he was going to leave. She anticipated him to disappear in a burst of energy, but it didn't happen. Instead he stopped walking and faced her.

"What?" she asked.

"I was wondering if you could give me a ride back down to Emerald Cove," he asked plainly. The bat gave him an incredulous look.

"I was actually planning on staying here with the others. You used Chaos Control last time."

"I lost the Chaos Emerald I had while helping the rabbit family. I don't think I can . . . , could you at least give me a ride to the main land then?" he stressed. Rouge closed her eyes and shook her head.

"Shadow, why don't you stay?"

"Rouge, I can't . . ."

"Look, we both know you lost your inhibitor rings and that's why you keep avoiding us. Shadow, when are you going to realize that it doesn't matter how much power you have, you're still needed around here," Rouge said, finally giving way to years of frustrations with the hedgehog, "For once can you just stay and help, all the way through? I want you to stay."

Shadow looked on in slight shock, awed by what was said. He appreciated the fact she found him still useful and that . . . she wanted him there, but he wouldn't put them in danger because of his inability. He knew that he couldn't be counted on in battle, reminded of his near failure with Cream and his reliance on a second-rate human invention. So in turn he was upset with her. She may have been justified in her request, but that didn't mean he had to honor it. His expression darkened.

"I appreciate your honesty but if you'll excuse me, I have to find a way off this island," he stated coldly. The sooner he left, the better off they'd be. Unfortunately for him, the white bat saw things differently and had every intention of making the black hedgehog stay.

"Look Shadow. I wasn't exactly a Sonic team groupie either, but times have changed, we've changed. What can I say, they've grown on me and I know that you like them too, even if you won't admit it. You can't just run off every time it gets . . . complicated. Don't give me that, you know it's true. Why I bet you even think of us now and again when you're out there all by your lonesome. If nothing else, just come and hear a few of Tails' explanations for old time's sake. If you hate it that much, I'll take you to Emerald Cove personally. How about that? Deal?" Rouge said, her voice growing gentler with each sentence. Shadow turned away from her, signaling that he was weighing her words considerably. There were worse fates then having to spend a few hours with Sonic and company. At least he would have Rouge there too.

"Deal, I need to share something with Tails anyway," he said quietly. Even though he didn't see it he could hear the big smile on her face.

"Good. I think they're this way, let's go honey," she said with a smile, quickly snatching his arm before he changed his mind and leading him down the path towards the others.

**Author's Note: Okay the pattern now is I will try to update once a month, but there are no guarantees as I am a slow writer. I hope you all enjoyed this chapter because there is more to come. **


	8. Chapter 8

**In Due Season**

Chapter VIII

_The Price of Freedom is Always High_

"Is he going to be alright?"

"Don't worry about it Blaze. If anyone can reach Shadow, its Rouge," Sonic reassured the feline sitting across from him and his wife. They were currently seated on some rocks around the base of the Master Emerald Shrine. Cream and Solana were with them also as they waited for Tails to make it to the island. The fox had gone out to survey the area and see about creating a plan for taking out the robots while the rest gathered together. The group was just chatting about the current events when the conversation had turned towards the ultimate life form.

"Still, why didn't he come with us? He had to of seen us land and get out, but he just sat there. It's like he didn't even hear us," she continued. It was true that their group had reached the island and they all exited the helicopter, except for Shadow. Sonic had advised they leave him alone, but Solana seemed to be very upset about the idea, not wanting the dark hedgehog to occupy her aircraft any longer than need be. An argument would have broken out if Knuckles hadn't insisted on checking the Master Emerald.

"Maybe it is because he is always behaving uselessly like this," Solana huffed, folding her arms across her chest from her position next to Blaze. The princess gave the dhole a side glance, also recalling the canine's reaction when the second group of heroes made it to the island. While greetings and explanations were being made with Rouge, Amy, and Cream, Solana mentioned her discontent for Shadow still being in her helicopter.

"You don't seem to like him very much," Blaze pointed out, turning slightly in the young woman's direction. Solana snorted.

"I don't trust him; him or that Rouge . . ."

"Chill Sol, their on our side remember," Sonic intervened.

"Yes, for now. But you cannot have forgotten what these people did that one time . . ."

Blaze witnessed the others rolling their eyes and couldn't help but feel this must be a fairly regular occurrence.

"We know, but its ancient history. They're helping us now and that's all that matters, right?" Sonic grinned. Solana made a disgusted face, but nodded all the same. The hedgehog's optimism was contagious after all. He tried to give her a thumbs up, but regretted the motion as he felt a sharp pain move up his arm. He masked it incredibly well from the others by lowering his hand to the side, but Amy noticed the flash of agony immediately. She couldn't help it, in fact, the first thing she noticed when her group met up with the other heroes was her husband's wince of pain. They all had their dents and dings from the battle, which was to be expected, but Sonic's injuries were more numerous and severe in nature.

She always knew he was impetuous in his behavior, but sometimes it was to the point of non-thinking. It upset her to see his condition now and she was well aware that he probably got half those wounds due to his recklessness. She also knew how stubborn he was in not admitting to being hurt. It wasn't out of pride completely, but because he strongly disliked being sidelined from the action. Gusto and impulse were not always very good combinations on the battlefield, she knew from experience. Her short-temper had gotten her into quite a few jams in the past. However, she knew he wouldn't fess up to anything in front of everyone so for now she decided to play along with his cover up, but would defiantly have a little talk with him later.

"So why are we here again?" Amy asked as she rocked Kimi gently. The baby hedgehog was still cranky over the recent trials, being jolted by loud noises and jostled around in the ship.

"Well, Miles thought it would be best to come here, being the robots were following us from the ground. Happily, it appears they cannot swim," Solana stated.

"So they're still out there?" Cream asked with a bit of fear, Cheese mimicking her agitation.

"Afraid so, but don't worry. Tails'll come up with a plan and with all the help we have now we're sure to kick some serious robo-butt," Sonic smiled and so did everyone else.

"That reminds me; was the city able to be warned along with the others?" Solana inquired.

"To be honest, there really wasn't anything to warn them about. Once Rouge and I picked up Cream we flew towards the town and there weren't any robots there," Amy voiced loudly as Kimi started getting fussy. Sonic offered to take her for a while and the baby was switched off between parents.

"We warned the campsite though, and Espio was there. We told him what was going on," Cream continued.

"Sorry, but who is Espio?" Blaze asked.

"Oh he's a ninja that works for the Chaotix Detective Agency, or at least I think he's working with them again. That's right; we never got to introduce you to everyone. You'll probably want to know who all the Chaotix are. Well there's Vector the Crocodile, he's kind of the leader of that organization you could say and Charmy Bee, he's a bit of a comedian in my opinion, but a nice kid. Anyway, Espio the Chameleon is a pretty good guy and . . ." Amy explained on, while Sonic cheered his daughter up with silly faces. Blaze gave them a confused stare. Cream decided to finish clarifying the original question.

"You remember my mother, we told her about it too. She and the Chaotix decided to stay behind and help evacuate the city when Tails called us. I do hope that you get to meet the Chaotix though Blaze."

"Yeah, if you want a headache. Anyway, the Master Emerald seems to be all right," Knuckles declared as he descended the steps with confidence. His booming voice was followed quickly by Kimi's ear-splitting cry. Everyone gave a start as Sonic folded his ears back. Amy quickly reached over and took the baby from him. She glared at the echidna who held up his hands in surrender. "What I do? What I do?"

"Never mind," she groaned as she and Sonic tried to figure out the problem. Amy discovered it right away. "I think she needs to be changed." Everyone crinkled their noses. "You wouldn't happen to have any diapers on the island would you," the pink hedgehog asked doubtfully.

"Yeah sure, I keep a whole stash of baby stuff in a hut."

"You don't have to be sarcastic Knuckles," she deadpanned.

"I'm being serious. Rouge had forgotten to give it to you on the baby shower thing so she had me keep it in the storage hut Tails built up here. Shut up Sonic," he barked as he saw the blue hedgehog snicker out of the corner of his eye.

"Really?" she stated standing to her feet with Kimi.

"Yeah really, follow me I'll show you," the guardian sighed. Sonic began to stand up too, but Amy noticed his sore movements and at once commanded him to sit back down and not move. It was the echidna's turn to laugh.

"That's a good boy, Sonic," Knuckles mocked as he began to led Amy and Kimi away. Just then the sound of an engine bellowed in the distance. It sounded like the Tornado's. The blue hedgehog scarcely had the thought of standing up when he heard Amy's voice shout back.

"Keep it seated Sonic!"

"Don't worry, I will bring Miles back here so you don't have to move Sonic," Solana smiled slyly as she went off in the direction of the noise, leaving Cream and Blaze to giggle good naturedly at Sonic's pout. Eventually he couldn't help but chuckle too, which caught the cat off guard.

Memories of Sonic's laughter bubbled up within her stirring up emotions she was trying so desperately to snuff out. While the blue hedgehog was completely distracted by the idea of his wife convincing everyone he needed to sit still, Cream noticed Blaze's expression, the slight reddening of the cat's cheeks and the turning away. That was all the rabbit had to see to bring her theory to fact. The guardian of the Sol Emeralds did have a crush on the hero. She suspected it from their chat earlier but now there was no doubting it. However, Cream now noticed Sonic giving the feline a concerned frown.

"Blaze, what's wrong? You've been acting kind of strange lately. Is everything all right?"

"Well uh . . ." the cat froze, feeling a weight build in her stomach and a knot in her throat.

"Oh, that's because she's a long way from home Mr. Sonic and has a kingdom to be concerned about," Cream interjected trying to keep her old friend from anymore embarrassment. Blaze looked to the young rabbit, who winked back. The princess wasn't sure of the gesture but grateful for the save.

"I'm sorry Blaze, I guess I didn't look at it that way," Sonic apologized.

"That's alright Sonic. It isn't your fault. Still, I wonder what brought me here?" she asked.

"Well it was the Emeralds that did it last time, so maybe they've done it again."

"Yes, but for what purpose. There was nothing happening in my dimension when I left. How about here? Has anything strange been taking place?"

"Nope, no earthquakes or anything. All that's basically happened here is the Chaos Emeralds went missing two years ago and Eggman's crazier, but other than that . . ."

"Wait, two years ago, the emeralds went missing," Blaze interjected.

"Yeah."

"That's when Eggman Nega quit attacking us, about two years ago. At least no one has seen him this whole time. That's why my kingdom has been running so smoothly."

"Are you saying the emeralds and Nega might be related?" Sonic mused.

"Well it is an odd coincidence wouldn't you say."

"But not all of the Chaos Emeralds are missing now," Cream pointed out. Sonic nodded in agreement as he pulled out the green gemstone. Blaze looked at it and was reminded of Sonic's failed attempts at utilizing the Emerald's power against the robots earlier and of her own at using the Sol Emeralds.

"Yes, but it appeared to do you little good during the battle," Blaze said.

Cream gasped at this information. Having one of the mystic gemstones was normally enough in securing a victory, so the fact that Sonic couldn't defeat these robots with a Chaos Emerald only showed the threatening odds they were up against.

"It's true. I couldn't even get a scratch on one of those bad boys without the emerald and barely got a dent in with it," Sonic replied.

"That's because I think you were going up against six Chaos Emeralds," a voice joined in from their left. They looked up to see that Tails and Solana had joined them. The fox continued. "I was able to locate one of the machines that attacked you. It appears they operate on a duel-system of power. It combines some kind of electrochemical energy conversion device, maybe hydrogen based with oxygen as its oxidant, and because the energy spikes at different points in time . . ."

"Plain speaking please there buddy, some of us didn't graduate from Central U," Sonic quipped.

"Sorry, I got carried away there. According to the readouts I think each robot has a Chaos Emerald inside of it, that's why they're so fast and strong. It's amazing that you made it out of there at all Sonic. Are you all okay?"

"You know me Tails, never better."

"Yes, it appears we all made it out fine, except . . . um Shadow. He didn't seem to fair that well," Blaze added as an afterthought.

"Shadow? Is he back?" Tails asked in surprise.

"Yeah, he's in the chopper. I think he's having one of his moments," Sonic informed as he took note of Solana's distain.

"Yes and he won't get out," Solana said curtly.

"Come on, Rouge is working on getting him to leave now," the speedster emphasized.

"Well, he is still creepy and she is no better," Solana mumbled. Sonic scoffed.

"Look if it wasn't for Shadow showin' up back there at the last second, I'd of been dog kibble by now," Sonic joked, directing a smirk to the dhole. His laid back approach to danger resonated in his features until his eyes locked with Amy's. She and Knuckles had been returning and it had gone unnoticed by him until now. No one else reacted to his statement, but he saw the fright and resentment in her expression before she turned with Kimi and stalked away. He watched as the echidna tried to question her about her swift departure.

"I'm just glad you're all okay. Maybe we can get started on a strategy with this new information . . . where are you going Sonic?" Tails questioned; a hint of distress in his voice as the blue hedgehog passed between him and Solana in pursuit of Amy.

"Uh, go ahead and get started without me . . . I'll catch up on the details later," he called back as he brushed past Knuckles.

"Now where is he going? Hedgehogs, I swear," Knuckles grumbled as he walked up to the others, "So what did I miss."

The fox looked back at the retreating couple and frowned.

"I don't know," he finally sighed, before turning to the rest with a shrug, "I guess we'll just work on a plan then. You said you found a Chaos Emerald earlier Knuckles, do you still have it."

"Yeah, actually Sonic has it now, why?"

"That's alright; I'll get it from him later. Anyway, I think we could use it to track down those robots. Maybe if we can get to them one by one, we could overpower them and get all the Emeralds back," the fox continued. Knuckles expression changed into confusion, but before he could say anything the fox's features twisted into deep thought. "Wait, didn't Shadow have an Emerald too?"

"Yes, that's right. I saw him use it during the first attack," Cream voiced. Tails scratched the top of his head in confusion.

"Wait, are you saying the robots have the Chaos Emeralds?" Knuckles asked. Tails didn't seem to give the guardian's question much heed.

"That's funny, because I could have sworn my equipment read six emeralds in those robots."

"That's because I believe the echidna picked up the emerald I dropped during combat," a deep voice said from behind the genius. Tails whirled around to see Shadow and Rouge standing there.

"Whoa! You guys surprised me. Uh, so you think Knuckles might have found the one you lost?" the fox asked, giving the darker hedgehog a weak smile.

"I don't think, I know," Shadow stated curtly.

"So are you saying the rest of the Chaos Emeralds are in those robots?" Knuckles blurted out.

"Yes! Anyway, Shadow, it's been so long since anyone's seen one, where did you find it?" Tails stated trying to gain information from the darker hedgehog and ignore the echidna's irritation.

"I found it in one of the doctor's bases. I believe he was using it to power his operations there. I was able to take it and use it to induce Chaos Control in order to come here. Unfortunately, I lost it while protecting the Rabbit Family."

"Yes, thank you very much," Cream voiced. Shadow nodded in her direction.

"What are we doing wasting time here? We need to go back down there and get the Emeralds," the guardian stressed as the message from Eggman replayed in his mind's ear. Blaze picked up on his distress and sympathized with him. She too understood the sense of responsibility that came with guarding such a powerful resource.

"Knuckles we need a plan first. Attacking them head on didn't seem to work. Either way, we have one Emerald and it plays in our favor. We can use it to find . . . the other Emeralds . . ." Tails trailed off as he saw the ultimate life form's features grow dark. "That is if it's okay with you," he muttered quickly.

"Actually . . ." Shadow began.

"What say does he have?" Knuckles glared over at the hedgehog. Shadow took a step forward.

"How dare you . . ."

"What Shadow means to say is that would be fine Tails. We both know how important it would be to find _all_ the Chaos Emeralds," Rouge cut in loudly, giving Shadow a pointed look. The hedgehog hated it, but a deal was a deal. He offered to stay and help for this day and he would do as he promised. He glared at Tails and nodded. The genius for his part looked uneasily at Shadow but continued to hold the gaze as he spoke.

"You wouldn't happen to have any way of communicating with your friend again? That data she sent me had some pretty interesting information that could really help out."

Shadow gave the slightest hint of acknowledgment that he heard the fox and pulled out the flash drive he had been carrying. He tossed the clip to Tails.

"That should have all the details you're looking for along with some kind of tracking program that lays out the doctor's schematics and planned attacks," Shadow said as if he could care less, turning his head and locking eyes with that cat again. She wore a neutral expression but maintained eye contact with him, beginning yet another staring contest between them.

"Thanks Shadow! Guys if you'll wait here I'll go get some of the supplies I keep aboard the Tornado and we may have a plan sooner than expected," Tails cheered.

"Do you need any help?" Solana asked.

"Sure," Tails smiled lovingly at her. Knuckles rolled his eyes.

"You two make me sick."

"That's not very nice to say Mr. Knuckles," Cream insisted as the two canines decided to take their leave.

"Yeah Knucky, where are your manners?" Rouge smirked. The echidna was about to respond, but instead held back and let out a small laugh instead.

"I think I'll go check on the Master Emerald again. Now that there's a theft on the island, I need to make sure it's extra secure," he smiled back before turning to head up the steps.

"Yeah, that's a good idea. I hear the guardian of that thing is a real slacker," the white bat called after him, chuckling when she heard the echidna growl on his way up. She nearly toppled over though as Shadow brushed past her quickly, leaving the group. Rouge gaped at him.

"Where are you going Mr. Shadow?" Cream said concerned.

"Away. I'll still be on the island if you need me," he stated without turning back. His jet shoes activated and he took off in a burst of speed.

"What's wrong with him Miss Rouge?"

"Aw you know him sweetie, always business," Rouge sighed. Blaze cleared her throat and the other two looked to her.

"I just don't think he likes me very much," Blaze stated.

"Well, don't feel bad. I don't think he likes anyone very much," the bat said, taking a seat on one of the rocks.

"He seems to get along with you quite well," Blaze pointed out as she too sat back down. She had improved on her people skills and making conversation was not as hard as it once was.

"I've known him for some time. We both used to work together for the government. Actually I still do, but he quit a year ago. Before that we went on several, let's say, expeditions together as a team. All I can say is don't blame him for being so moody, he just is," Rouge stated, with a level of endearment in her voice. Blaze didn't know the relationship the two shared and she didn't want to seem intrusive, but the cat was curious.

"Are you close to him? I mean, well, he doesn't seem like the friendly sort, not that I'm judging him. I was kind of the same way, but . . ."

"I know what you're saying. The answer to that honey is yes and no. I guess the best way I can describe it is he's like a younger brother, the kind that won't listen. I've never had a younger brother, don't even think I want one, but hey, some one's got to keep that guy on track."

"And you do a good job Miss Rouge. I think it's very nice of you to take care of Mr. Shadow like that," Cream smiled as Cheese shouted in approval.

"Yeah, but this better not leave the three of us okay. I have a rep to keep up believe it or not. I don't want to go down as Mr. Sunshine's big sister program."

"Don't worry, all secrets are safe with us, right Blaze," Cream emphasized her friends name as she winked at the feline, who awkwardly smiled back. The princess had nearly forgotten about the rabbit's discovery of her forbidden crush. Rouge raised an eyebrow.

"What are you two hiding?" she asked. Blaze blanched. Cream was sweet, but the rabbit was a teenager and secrets didn't tend to hold well with their kind.

"Well, I was just telling Blaze _the_ secret," Cream started, causing more confusion for the purple cat but some clarity for the white bat.

"Oh, you did?" Rouge questioned.

"Yes, the fact that I like Mr. Sonic," Cream continued in a low whisper. Rouge smirked while Blaze looked on in shock. The rabbit was telling the truth. She had harbored a small crush for the azure hedgehog at one point and still found him enchanting sometimes. It had been hard for her being that she was friends with Amy and it was months of guilty feelings until Rouge had talked with her.

"Ah honey, who doesn't? He's a great guy with a big heart, plus he's not half bad-looking either. If Amy hadn't beaten me to it, I would have netted him," Rouge said with a sense of mischief in her eyes. The feline's gaze darted over to the bat with an equal amount of astonishment. "Don't look so stunned over there, you know what I'm talking about."

"I guess he did have a few admirers," Cream giggled as she played with one of her ears.

"Ha, a few? Trust me; everybody and their mother had or has a crush on Sonic the hedgehog. Crazed fans out there worship him, Celesta thought she loved him; heck even Solana admired him for a little while there. I bet even you like him to some point am I right?" Rouge commented in the direction of Blaze. The cat blushed, but wasn't as embarrassed now after hearing all this. Without realizing it, she gave a small nod.

"See Cream, like I told you. No reason to feel bad about it."

"And I am happy for Amy," Cream added.

"Oh yeah, Amy's a good person and good for him, but being jealous of her sometimes; welcome to the club. So can your friend there be trusted?" Rouge asked, giving the cat a doubtful look.

"I think she's able to keep this a secret," Cream said, giving the lavender feline another wink.

"Yes . . . I can."

"Well you better, because if you ever tell anyone outside of this, especially Amy, I'll have to kill you," Rouge stated matter of factually. Blaze didn't know if she was joking or not.

"Uh . . ."

"Calm down sweetheart, I'm just having fun . . . You seem trustworthy enough, Plus, I like you. Welcome to the Sapphire Pact," the bat smiled in good humor.

"Thank you guys, it always feels better after talking about it," Cream smiled. Blaze looked to the two skeptically. She wondered if she'd been tricked, but in seeing Cream's innocent eyes and reddened face, Blaze knew that wasn't the case. It really did appear that she hadn't been the only one to suffer with the blue hedgehog dilemma. She felt good after admitting she liked Sonic, and seeing that the rabbit had helped her do so in a way that didn't bring judgment made it even better. A small smiled graced her majesty's lips.

"Thanks Cream."

"You're welcome Blaze."

It was Rouge's turn to give a puzzled look.

"Did I miss something?"

"No, just appreciating one of the few good friends I have," Blaze stated. The three chatted a little longer, leading into where Blaze hailed form and the condition of her kingdom and Cream spoke of her past adventures since the purple feline had been gone. Even Rouge went over some points of her life such as her affiliation with G.U.N. and the hobby of treasure hunting. It was obvious to see the three women were enjoying their conversation but the atmosphere changed when the topics course shifted to a certain red echidna. Blaze noticed the somber tones of her companions and decided to listen rather than speak.

"Maybe you should talk with him now. You'll never know if you don't ask," Cream said with counsel in her voice. Rouge closed her eyes and chuckled dejectedly. She was taking relationship advice from a seventeen year old and sadder still, it sounded decent. She really must be desperate, but it was worth a shot.

"You know dear; I think I will," Rouge determined as she spread her wings, prepared to leave their company in search of Knuckles, "Thanks."

"Good luck, Miss Rouge," Cream called as she and Blaze watched the bat head towards the shrine.

"Where did everyone go?" A voice said from behind them. The two turned to see Tails coming up, cumbersomely holding quite a few things, Solana trailing after him carrying just a suitcase. Cheese flew forward and caught a pencil that had slipped from the fox's grip. Blaze and Cream came over as well to help, taking the laptop and several other devices he had to ease his load. "Thanks," he breathed.

"Miss Rouge just left to go talk to Mr. Knuckles up there."

"And I believe Shadow wanted to be left alone," Blaze stated.

"Oh. Well, I think I'm on to something, but I was going to need some help," he looked to them expectantly.

"What do you need?" Cream asked.

"Well, if you'll take these things and follow Solana back to the workshop, I'll try to round up the others," Tails informed as he handed the rest of the equipment to them.

"Tails, I know you have several other obligations and events to deal with but . . ." Blaze began.

"You want me to try and figure out what brought you here and maybe why?" Tails smirked. Blaze smiled knowing that some answers might be forthcoming.

"Exactly."

"I'll try my best Blaze. With everyone's help, we should be able to figure it out," Tails grinned. Blaze nodded and they parted ways.

_**o**_

He stood near the edge of the floating island, staring out on the partially frozen lake below. Shadow noted the contrast between the wintery scene and the tropical temperatures the isle seemed to create. It reflected his current state of mind perfectly. He uncrossed his arms and turned to walk along the shore line, not giving the scenery anymore thought. Instead his attention was focused on his current situation and a certain purple cat. He would have much rather preferred to push the feline aside in his concentrations, but her image kept coming back up.

Her brilliant, yellow eyes intently focused seemed to bore into his head. He didn't know anything about her outside of what Rouge had said briefly, but the few encounters he had with the mysterious cat drove him crazy. There was something unsettling about her. Maybe it was the way she appeared to challenge him each time with her gaze or the fact he had to turn away from her, in essence, losing every time. Either way he hated the feeling it created within him when he locked sights with the feline and he didn't trust her for it. With that he finally pushed the subject away as he thought about his second dilemma; the deal with Rouge.

He wasn't one for breaking agreements, but he also wanted to leave and see if Alyson was okay or needed more help. After all, Sonic and his gang were safe now and he practically gift wrapped and delivered a means of defeating Eggman in the form of that information drive. In his eyes, staying here was pointless and interfered with his original mission, something that didn't sit well with the dark hedgehog. He wanted to leave, but the thought of Rouge's disappointment gave him moments for pause; that, and the fact that if he tried jumping off the island he would just land in a lake of freezing water. How the bat convinced him to stay in the first place was beyond him, or perhaps it wasn't. It was just another quandary in his long growing list of issues.

Whether he would admit it or not, along his eleven years of knowing her, his incredibly rare affections had fallen on the ever ambitious Rouge the Bat. So it should have been easy to help her out, but for him it was like riding a constant roller coaster. His attitude conflicted with his desires, his reputation warred against his dreams and his inexperience complicated his progress. Whenever he was with Rouge it was daunting and awkward, when he was away from her it was frustrating and depressing, but his recent attempt at ignoring her was just making him sick. He wouldn't put a name to the feeling he had for Rouge though, because it hurt too much. His memories of Maria prevented it.

He had been created to help the human girl. He was created with her in mind. He had loved Maria and she died. He was immortal. He was locked up for fifty years with little in the way of memories or knowledge. Then he was awakened to destroy mankind . . . or save it. Who knows. So when Rouge first encountered him he wasn't a happy camper. Even after those events, when she befriended him of sorts, he still pushed the kindness away. She persisted and overtime his defenses wore down. She slipped in somehow and that wasn't all. She brought compassion and trust back into his life. Working with her and Omega for G.U.N. had been some of the best times of his life, but then he saw how fragile life was once again. He was the ultimate life form and yet he couldn't protect them, he couldn't stop pain or death. So he left them. He wanted to shut it all out again but he couldn't. He met Alyson and felt that same need to protect her as he did for Team Dark and Maria. And it angered him.

"Deal or not, I'm leaving this island one way or another," he growled to himself. He had a mission to complete with Alyson and he wanted to preoccupy his thoughts with that; needed to preoccupy his thoughts with that. Shutting down emotions with a task driven mindset was still within his control and he believed he had the perfect means of leaving now.

_**o**_

Knuckles could hear the familiar beating of wings and the graceful landing that usually followed behind him. He didn't bother to turn around, but took note that she walked up beside him. They both looked out over the island, something the two had done several times in the past, but on this occasion there was a tense silence between them. They hadn't really spent time in each other's company since their argument a month ago. The disagreement in question was always the same and never seemed to reach a conclusion or a climax for that matter. Each time it was brought up, a heated dispute would begin, followed by their abrupt parting of ways, usually not speaking to each other for weeks or even months. Normally the guardian was the quieter of the two so he surprised the both of them when he spoke first.

"Hello Rouge."

She looked to him for a moment, though he continued to stare off.

"Hi, there," the bat replied softly turning her gaze back out. There was another moment of silence before two weary sighs were heard.

"Rouge, I'm sorry."

"I am too."

They faced one another, Knuckles allowing his arms to fall from their position across his chest, while Rough wrapped hers around herself, both gestures a sign of vulnerability. Neither one could look the other in the eye for very long however as the guardian tilted his head down and the jewel collector looked skyward. They both loved one another, but working out a stable relationship still appeared to elude them after eleven years. Nothing emphasized this more than their broken off engagement three years ago. Yet, even after that they had still been attracted to one another, courting off and on. It didn't stop the quarreling or the conflict, but it kept them coming back to the other. They brought tough things to the table of love such as Rouge's selfishness and Knuckles' stubbornness, but over the years with each other the bat had learned to be more giving and the echidna had become more understanding.

"No, I shouldn't have said what I did. I didn't even give you a chance to explain," he finally said.

"Well Knucky, it takes two to fight and I knew what you were trying to say," she stated lamely. They had gone through this so many times with the same results, Rouge knew, and she couldn't take it any longer. With all the stress of this day and basically her entire life she had to do this. She had to break past this terrible barrier they had built between them and move on, with or without him. But before she could say anything . . .

"Knuckles! Rouge! Hey you guys," Tails voice could be heard approaching them from below. The military agent gave a displeased grunt as the guardian just shrugged.

"Yes Tails?" the echidna asked as he watched the fox ascend the last bit of the way using his namesakes.

"I'm trying to get everyone together at the old workshop. Remember. The one you helped me build Knuckles . . . up here on the island . . . near the mountains," Tails informed as he took notice of the guardian's confused face.

"Oh, yeah. I remember that. It was a pain in the butt to make," Knuckles recalled with irritation.

"Right, well Solana is taking Blaze and Cream there right now and I was hoping to have you all there for some ideas I have. I just have to find Sonic and Amy and then Shadow . . ."

"We'll be there, honey, but I think you better leave Shadow to me. He can be a bit testy and he didn't leave in the greatest of spirits," Rouge advised in her usual confidence. She observed a slight reaction out of Knuckles when she said the darker hedgehog's name. The bat wondered if it was just her imagination, or if she just detected a bit of jealously.

"Okay Rouge, you know where the workshop is right?" Tails inquired.

"Sweetie, I know this floating rock better than anyone standing here," Rouge quipped as she spread her wings and took off.

"Hey!" Knuckles called after her raising a fist, "Sometimes she drives me nuts."

"Now all I have to do is find Sonic and . . ." the fox began until he was interrupted by an angry female voice off to the east of them, "Amy? Well I guess that solves that problem."

"Sounds like Sonic's getting chewed out for something," Knuckles laughed as he started heading towards the steps, intent on seeing said hedgehog's tongue lashing. Tails grunted.

"Why don't you head to the workshop and I'll go find them."

"What? You can't tell me what to do, besides this'll be funny."

"Yeah, but you have a tendency to make situations like this worse, which takes time to straighten out and we don't have that time. I really need everyone to hear this. Plus you know how short Amy's temper is and how large her hammer can get. It might not be Sonic she's angry with for long, so please head to the workshop," Tails countered, his argument solid.

"Fine, I'll go to the stupid meeting place," Knuckles grunted as he marched off in the opposite direction. The fox smiled victoriously as he twirled his twin tails in the direction of the arguing.

_**o**_

"Amy! Amy, please stop!" Sonic pleaded as he followed behind his wife who showed no signs of slowing her angry stride. They were currently at the storage room Knuckles had shown the pink hedgehog earlier. She had placed Kimi securely in a hammock within the hut while she and her husband now paced back and forth out front.

"Why Sonic; you sure don't know when to. Why don't you just shut that hole in your face and leave me alone," she fumed, still walking forward. The blue hedgehog paused in his tracks. He knew she was upset, but this was a bit over the top. Tried and true, he fell back on a method that usually never failed; humor.

"Whoa, where is all this coming from? I thought the hormones were supposed to be back to normal after six weeks," he joked only to realize how stupid that was when she whirled on him with fire in her eyes.

"You think this is funny Sonic?" she yelled, causing him to stumble backwards; his expression holding panic quite well. "You running around all the time . . . and you think it's funny! Well it's not funny!"

"Yes, I mean no . . . I mean . . . I don't think what's funny? I don't even know what you're talking about!" he raised his voice in defense.

"You don't know? Sonic, how could you not know? You looked right at me and you knew, you knew," she whispered harshly as she became aware that their argument may upset Kimi.

"Hello Amy, I really don't know what you're talking about. Running around all the time?" Sonic snapped back in hushed tones as she had.

"Arg, you're so stupid sometimes!" the pink hedgehog exasperated. She refused to believe he was unaware of what he was doing and how it affected her. They had been married for two years now, going on three; how could he not see the problem?

"Stupid for what?" Sonic growled in frustration. He didn't understand why she was so upset over this. He was always running around, he was Sonic the hedgehog for crying out loud. She never had an issue with that before. After all that's why they got married.

"It's not the running Sonic. You looked right at me when you said that line about 'I could have been dog chow'," Amy said mockingly adding a dumb laugh for emphasis.

"It was dog kibble," he corrected.

"See! You can't take anything seriously. You were almost killed and you think its fine," Amy strained, her voice growing raspy.

"Amy, I didn't get killed, I'm fine right here in front of you," Sonic stressed, beginning to grasp what the real concern here was and not liking it at all. This was a more serious impasse in their relationship. It was one that had to be discussed and negotiated time and time again. And it appeared it was here once more.

"Yeah, but you could have been Sonic. You could have been. You always put yourself in danger, always," Amy cried as she turned away, not feeling up to facing him. Sonic quickly slammed the door on that option however as he dashed over to face her again. He wasn't going to beat around the bush with this one.

"Amy, we've talked about this before. I have to do these things . . ." he began swiftly, the urge to make it right blinding him from all other emotional reason until he saw the tears covering her face.

"One day you're going to do something reckless and stupid . . ." she started until her frustrations with her husband subsided to the real fear, "And we'll never . . . see you again." That shocked him for a moment. _We'll never see you again_. It wasn't just her and him anymore. The blue hedgehog felt regret as he watched her cover her face with her hands. He reached out and took her into an embrace where she buried her muzzle into his shoulder.

"Amy, I . . ."

"I know you have to help people Sonic. I do, I just . . . it scares me to think I could lose you," she softly murmured to him. It scared her and then it scared him. His mind instantly raced back to the point when he didn't know if she or Kimi were okay after that fire. His stomach lurched as he realized what he put her through each and every time he took off on a life or death mission.

"I'm sorry," she whispered.

"No Amy. I'm sorry. I know you put up with a lot for me and I need to recognize that more often," he said gently as he stroked her head gently, "Man, I really can be stupid sometimes, huh?"

"No, just clueless, that's all," Amy sniffled out a laugh as she pulled away to look at him. He stuck out his lower lip, giving her a fake pout. All anger between them was dissolved.

"That kind of hurt my feelings," he sulked.

"Oh, my poor blueberry muffin, here," she cooed giving him a quick peck on the lips, "feel better?"

"I don't know, maybe another one of those will help," he said as straight faced as he could, though a grin was etching on his features. She smiled and made contact with his lips a bit longer this time before pulling away. He couldn't hide his smile now.

"That good?" she giggled.

"One more?" he requested readily.

"Okay, you want one more," she said alluringly, wrapping her arms around his neck while he moved his arms to her waist. The two hedgehogs leaned in to share a deep and impassioned kiss that probably would have progressed further if Tails hadn't of interrupted.

"Sonic! Amy! Oh . . ." the fox stopped short as the couple pulled apart quickly, each letting out a long breath. Amy blushed while Sonic reached up and scratched the back of his head.

"Tails, so uh . . . what's up?" the blue hedgehog asked with some irritation in his voice.

"Sorry to interrupt, I didn't know you guys were busy," the fox stated, though a snicker could be heard in his voice.

"Yeah, well what did you need Tails?" Amy sneered, not appreciating the canine's second offense of disruption between the two that day.

"Right, um I was hoping to get everyone to the hanger I have up here. I think we have a chance of getting all the other Chaos Emeralds, especially with the help of the one you have. Blaze, Cream, Solana, Rouge and Knuckles should already be there and I've found you guys. Rouge said she would try and get a hold of Shadow for me, too."

"Okay Tails, we'll be there in a sec," Sonic assured as he waved for Amy to follow him into the storage hut to retrieve Kimi.

"Alright, but try not to get too distracted guys," Tails quipped. Amy glared at the young male and he shrank back a bit. "Sorry, I was only kidding. Okay, I'm leaving, I leaving!" he exasperated as the pink hedgehog's glower intensified.

**Author's Note: Happy New Year! I hope you enjoy this chapter and thanks to Platonic49 for proofreading some of this. The suggestions were most needed :). A special thank you to those who left reviews, always helpful.**


	9. Chapter 9

**In Due Season**

Chapter IX

_Where Tempers Flare and Alliance Ends_

Everybody found themselves gathered around Tails' large computer screen waiting for the fox to begin explaining his findings. Even Shadow had come to the workshop, though his position in the back showed his reluctance to participate. The rest were genuinely interested with the only distraction coming in the way of Sonic suggesting a late lunch. He was still munching on some fruit, courtesy of Knuckles, when he spoke up first.

"So what's the deal buddy?"

"Alright, these were the robots that attacked us. They're called EBH's according to this data," Tails said as he brought up a picture of the robotic creatures from earlier, "Unfortunately, its programming information is password protected and I'm having trouble with the encryption. It looks like Eggman has stepped up his security."

"Well, who cares about that; how do we stop them, that's the answer I'd like to know," Knuckles interjected. The fox sighed in slight frustration.

"Yeah, gettin' em in the eye sure didn't work for long," Sonic added.

"I believe it's because they each have a Chaos Emerald," Tails stated.

"But why would Eggman put all the Emeralds in one place? It doesn't make any sense to me," Amy pointed out.

"I don't know, but the robots must have had some important purpose if Eggman sent them all out here at once. I tried tracking the direction they headed in," Tails informed, bringing up a radar screen, "but their movements were so quick and erratic that they were out of sight before I could lock in. However, if I'm right, the robots are probably plotting a course back to the nearest of Robotnik's bases, so see this," the genius said as he pulled up some graphs, "remember the flight paths chart, well the last three years are mapped out on this thing. Unfortunately, I hadn't noticed from before that each trajectory is only drawn out over different broadcasting indicators not actual origin and destination points. But all I need to do is triangulate the positions of each course and I should be able to get a single location. That's going to take some time but, this practically grants us access to any trail leading back to Eggman's bases in this area and . . ."

"Whoa, hold up buddy. I'm usually quick on the uptake but not that quick. You lost me at the middle part there," Sonic joked lightly, his head still spinning as he had tried to keep up with what Tails had been rambling on about.

"Yeah, plus I don't see how this is helping us anyway. Just tell us what we need to do so we can get the Chaos Emeralds back," Knuckles demanded. The echidna was still upset that the Chaos Emeralds were so close and they missed an opportunity of getting them back. Not only that, but he hadn't sensed their presence at all. Unlike the green one, he didn't feel a thing with the other gemstones and that bothered him. The guardian wasn't the only one troubled by this fact either. Sonic was now aware that there were potentially seven Chaos Emeralds to draw from back there and he hadn't detected even one iota of power at the time.

"Knuckles, I can't tell you what to do because like I'm trying to explain to you . . ."

"Tails, how do you know those robots have Chaos Emeralds, I wasn't able to feel any energy when I was with those bots," Sonic inquired.

"Me either," Knuckles agreed. Tails scratched the top of his head.

"I just read the energy signature on the Tornado's schematics. It matched that of a Chaos Emerald so I just assumed . . . so you two didn't feel anything?" the fox said, looking to the both of them curiously.

"Great now we don't know what the heck were looking at, now do we?" the echidna said bitterly.

"I didn't know all this," Tails said defensively.

"Just dandy! Just genius!" Knuckles exasperated.

"Shut up knucklehead. Is it possible that it's something else then?" Sonic asked the fox.

"There's always a possibility. If Eggman has figured out a way to mimic the energy levels or worse yet, came up with a way to produce the energy without a Chaos Emerald, I can't really say either way but . . ." Tails began.

"Then lets figure that out first," Knuckles cut in causing Tails to glare at him.

"If you'd let me finish a sentence once in a while maybe I could!" Tails yelled. Sonic buried his face in one hand as the two began to bicker back and forth. Everyone seemed to get caught up in the aggravation; everyone except Shadow who was currently eying the situation unfolding at a distance. He watched as Solana got up into the echidna's face while Cream and Amy started putting in their two cents. His vision then focused on Rouge as she made her way over to the dhole with a scowl etched on her face. He knew she was coming to the aid of that echidna and he also knew that she had affections for the guardian.

The foreign emotion of jealously rose up in him as he witnessed the bat defending Knuckles, just as she had done for him. Anger surged through him, but he understood that his sentiments were misguided and that it would be foolish indeed if he acted on such emotions. He chose to turn away and ignore the display of absurdity only to find his line of sight matched up with that of the feline's once more. Why couldn't she look somewhere else for a change? He was so caught up in irritations of the past that he missed the expression of apology on the others face until she spoke.

"Shadow, I'm sorry if I offended you," she said just loudly enough to be heard over the commotion. The hedgehog did little to hide his misgivings as he crossed his arms and continued to glare hard at her. Apology or not he still didn't trust her . . . and he wanted to win this time. For her part, Blaze was just trying to bridge a gap she hadn't tried to form between her and this guy. "I know it was rude of me to stare . . ."

"Yes, it was," Shadow stated sharply, not wanting to lose ground in the standoff.

"I'm just trying to adjust to everything. I meant no ill feelings towards you," she stressed her eyes showing that her words were authentic.

"I don't want your apologies and I don't need your kindness," he held hotly. He tried to keep eye contact with her wounded gaze, but cursed himself as he automatically turned away.

"Fine," Blaze said evenly as she turned and took a few steps forward; away from him. She now understood what the others meant about this hedgehog being moody.

"Look! Maybe we should call it a day. Obviously Tails needs some more time to figure things out and we need more time to recover from what happened today. Not only that, but the town down there still needs help," Amy exclaimed catching everyone's attention. She was fed up with the arguing as little Kimi had gotten worked up again.

"I agree with Ames," Sonic chimed in as he accepted the crying baby from his wife.

"Of course you do, she's your wife," Knuckles deadpanned.

"No, I'm just listening to good sense," Sonic shot back just as dryly, still trying to quiet Kimi down.

"Well I'm just trying to . . . ugh, can you get that kid out of here!" Knuckles complained as he covered his ears. The blue hedgehog gave him a sneer before turning to the rest with a weak smile as Kimi let out another ear-splitting wail.

"I still think it's a great idea," he shouted as he and Amy made their way through the group's side glances to the back door. Both parents' faces grew hot as their child still continued to cry loudly. Knuckles felt a tad bit guilty for his outburst, but the baby was so deafening. He looked up to see everyone looking at him.

"What?"

"I agree with them. A little break might be what we need to get our knuckleheads together, wouldn't you say?" Rouge posed, pointing her comment in the echidna's direction.

"Why's everyone picking on me? I just want to get things done that's all."

"We know Knuckles. All of us want this to work out for the best," Tails emphasized in an insistent tone.

"Yeah, well a little rest and a plan might go a lot better, I'll admit," the guardian conceited as he could still hear the muffled cries of Kimi outside.

"Now see, was that really that hard?" Rouge taunted.

"Yes, it was. Now get outta here so Tails can finish doing what he has to do," Knuckles directed waving for the bat to move along, though the smirk on his face indicated his good humor.

It didn't take Tails long to get everything situated. He radioed Vector to see how the evacuation of the town had gone; pleased to hear it went smoothly. The crocodile informed him that the nearby city of WindSong had accepted the refugees graciously and that Vanilla was safe with him and Charmy. They sent Espio back just in case the heroes needed more help, but they were going to stay in the neighboring town and continue to offer assistance.

Once the fox was off the communicator with Vector, Rouge inquired of Omega's whereabouts. Knuckles told them the last time he had seen the robot was when the thing went out to secure the perimeter of Kingsbury. The bat suggested that she go look for Omega and that Shadow help. The darker hedgehog was tempted to take this opportunity as a means of escape, but a strong reminder from the spy about his promise brought the consideration into subjection. Plus, his true motives relied on him hanging around the group and aiding them for at least a little while longer.

With that taken care of, Tails turned his attention on the fact that Kingsbury was still in shambles and so was his other workshop after those creatures had attacked. There was also the dilemma that there might still be bots in the area and overlooked survivors. Amy and Sonic were the first to volunteer aid but the thought of their fussy daughter gave both parents a moment for pause. Cream offered to watch Kimi, but Amy was hesitant, very hesitant. Solana stated that she would stay also, trying to offer the new mother peace of mind. With a lot of coaxing from her husband and several false starts, as she kept turning back saying she forgot this and that, they finally headed out. Knuckles and Blaze, whom Tails suggested go with the couple, went while the fox begin his own mission of salvaging what he could from his ground base and moving it to the one on the island.

_**o**_

A young G.U.N. officer made his way down the hallways of the facility at a hurried pace. He was preparing to report to his superior with the information that was asked of him. He was curious about the request however, as it referred to one of the organization's top spies. He came to the office door and knocked, only entering once permitted to do so.

"Sir, agent Rouge still hasn't come back. I believe she took a Highlander 65 and the attack unit Omega with her," he stated, giving the general a polite salute.

"Thank you Henderson, at ease. Has she tried to communicate with us?" the G.U.N. general asked.

"No sir."

"Has any transmission been sent out on our part to contact her?"

"No, I don't believe so sir."

"Good work son. Get me Lieutenant Todd from the 9th division on the phone immediately, and make sure I have privacy on this call, understood."

"Yes sir," the officer said as he left just as quickly as he came. Still, his interests were peaked even further at the mention of the 9th division. Henderson had heard of the branch through the general before but wasn't sure of its purpose or location, in fact no one did. It was supposedly top secret, a very hush-hush operation or at least that's what the general had told him. All he had were communication numbers to the place stored in the locked cabinet of his office. As he filed through papers and folders for the contact number his senior officer, General Davis, sat back down in his chair facing the window with a thoughtful gaze.

The old man knew what he was about to do would get him into serious trouble with the higher ups and even get him suspended from the organization permanently, but his greed for power seemed to out-weigh his concern for this job of fifteen years. A wicked smile appeared on his face as his telephone rang. He picked it up with an air of anticipation, knowing this was going to be the beginning of a mighty fine payoff.

"Hello, Todd? Yes, she's gone. We have our opportunity . . ."

_**o**_

Tails had successfully brought up most of his tools and technology from below, setting them up on the island. Sonic's group had bumped into Espio shortly after being dropped off and they caught the lizard up on the past events before continuing work on their recovery effort. It didn't take long for them to clear the streets of ruble and dwindling fires, disable any robots in the area and get the few lost souls still there to safety and treatment. Rouge and Shadow searched the surrounding area, knowing Omega had to be somewhere. The first hour was spent arguing over how to carry out the search but after deciding to stick together and use one of Tails' devices, the pair found him miles away still hunting for more bots. After another debate, some screaming and a bit of quick persuasion by Rouge, Team Dark was on their way back to the floating island.

"I still don't understand the purpose of going back to Angel Island, Eggman's robots are moving away from intended destination?" Omega relayed from his position on the wing of Rouge's jet.

"Omega, I told you. Tails might have found a way to get to more of Eggy's bases which means you could have all the fun in the world demolishing whole army's of those stupid robots if you'd like, but you have to be patient," Rouge explained.

"Affirmative, but I still don't see the need to go and be surrounded by inferior units."

"Here, here," Shadow agreed from his spot on the opposite wing.

"Don't you start. Look I need both of you to behave. We're heading back and that's final."

"Not to seem rude Rouge, but why? You said yourself that Sonic and his gang aren't the crowd you usually run with. Plus, you're not one to offer your services as charity without a purpose," Shadow stated giving the bat a skeptical look. She didn't turn to face him, choosing instead to focus on the flight path ahead. She wasn't too keen on telling anyone her real motives for staying with the group, but if she ever did, Shadow would be the one to talk to. Due to his reserved nature the hedgehog was able to keep secrets very well, but she wanted to keep her lonely feelings to herself at the moment and that was that.

"I have my reasons Shadow and just like you, I'm choosing to keep quiet," she smirked upon seeing his ruffled expression in the windshield's reflection. The trio touched down next to the other aircrafts on the island, the hedgehog and robot jumping to the ground once settled. Rouge lifted the canopy of the plane and floated out to land beside them.

"Welcome back, it took you all long enough," they heard a voice say off to the side. They turned to see Solana standing next to the workshop's main entrance, her eyes giving them a suspicious glare. Rouge only gave the dhole a sly smile.

"Why thank you sweetheart, with manners like yours I understand why you have to wait up so often."

The canine scowled and was about to say something else when Omega cut her off.

"When do we get the locations of Eggman's robots?"

"Easy there, Omega. Where is everyone?" Rouge inquired of the dhole, humor gone from her voice.

"They are around," Solana stated in a toying fashion. Shadow growled and stepped toward the female, his eyes fused into dangerous slits. Rouge quickly headed him off; whispering desperately for him to leave it to her. Their eyes locked in a moment of strong aggravation but the hedgehog muttered something unintelligible and walked off in another direction. Rouge watched him trudge off before she turned her bitter gaze on Solana.

"Listen here you annoying little skirt, I don't know why your attitude towards us stinks and honestly I don't care, but I'm here to help and if you're going to stand in the way of that I'll give you a reason to be scared of me. Now tell me where the others are before I get really upset," Rouge stated darkly. Solana gulped, knowing the bat was fully capable of doing severe bodily harm.

"Well uh, mostly everybody is in the workshop. Sonic's family is camping out down there and Knuckles went back to the shrine. If you'd like . . . hey where are you going?"

"I need to discuss something with echidna boy if you don't mind," Rouge said as she gently lifted off the ground. With a mischievous smile she turned back to her robotic companion.

"Now remember Omega, behave yourself," she shouted before turning to whisper to Solana, "He adheres to a strict shoot first ask later policy if you know what I mean. With a stealer personality like yours, I'm sure you'll make fast friends."

The bat flew off laughing as the dhole paled.

"When do I get to destroy something?" Omega blurted out loudly.

"Uh Miles?" Solana hollered as she stumbled back into the workshop, the large robot stomping in after her.

Meanwhile the soft breathing of a baby could be heard coming from a tent located just south of the workshop. Sonic and Amy had opted for privacy over luxury and took up the cramped shelter without complaint. Amy was feeding Kimi within the safety of their pitched tent preparing to bed the infant down in a basinet of blankets beside her. She watched as Sonic busied himself with setting up the camp; all of which took about twenty-five seconds, impressive, but not necessarily for the blue hedgehog's standards. Amy could see the exhaustion in his movements; the tiredness of his steps. In fact he had been out of it the past few hours, needing instructions repeated to him, having to take more breaks than usual and even . . . lagging behind which was simply unheard of. That's why she had suggested they go to bed early. He didn't want to but his usual protests were weak in the face of his drowsiness.

"Sonic, don't take this the wrong way, but you look awful," Amy stated as she laid Kimi down, watching her husband zip up the tent. The blue hedgehog let out an annoyed sigh.

"You're not looking all that hot either, no offense," he drawled giving his daughter's cheek a gentle brush before collapsing on the sleeping bag next to his wife. Amy rolled her eyes and gave her own irritated breath. It was true that they had just gone through a lot that day, but his exhaustion began way before the attacks took place and that just served to remind her of his nightmare, the one he hadn't told her yet.

"Sonic, you never did tell me what you were dreaming about this morning?" she questioned, snuggly down into her own bedding.

"What?" he asked groggily, his mind teetering between the waking and unconscious. He tilted his head in her direction with half-lidded eyes. Amy sighed.

"Never mind, just . . . go on, get some sleep," she whispered disappointedly. He would have gladly rolled over and drifted into slumber but the unhappy pitch in his mate's voice caused him to groan in dutiful displeasure as he propped himself up on one elbow.

"No, I want to hear it. What was the question?" he asked.

"Your dream this morning, you didn't tell me what it was, so how about now, please?" she pleaded without skipping a beat, her full attention on him with eager anticipation. Sonic blinked a few times wishing he had just taken the first opportunity to sleep.

"Oh, do we really have to get into that right now? Can't it wait till morning?" he moaned as he plopped his head back down on his synthetic pillow. Amy frowned not out of concern this time, but from anger.

"Fine. First you nearly get yourself killed today and now you won't even talk to me. Just fine," Amy growled quietly as she rolled away from him and laid down herself.

"Huh?" Sonic yawned as sleep had almost claimed him. Amy chose not to answer, knowing he wasn't fully awake anyway and it wasn't long till the blue hedgehog was gone. As she heard the soft snoring of her husband she let out a disheartened cry followed by a tear down her cheek. Didn't he care? Her mind was truly ensnared in the fears of that day while he slept soundly. The temporary loss of her daughter in a burning city and the sight of her love lying motionless on the ground were images taking a toll on her emotional nerves, whether she admitted it or not and yet his peace of mind seemed intact. The couple had seen worse, experienced worse and yet somehow this small attack on their hometown seemed horrendous to her. How her counterpart could go to sleep so easily was a question that didn't settle well.

However, she knew her uneasiness was unfounded. He had been just as upset as she was when they were clearing rubble in the city; remnants of their inn home being a particularly difficult blow. No, what bothered her was his distance now. Even in the recovery effort she noticed his declined attention and enthusiasm in the recovery effort. She had questioned him on his behavior and he attributed it to hunger or tiredness briefly. From that point on he began doing what he normally did when distraught or under stress, kept silent. He didn't say much when they got back to the island or over dinner or in the workshop with the others and now he had shut her down once again. He was troubled, but he wasn't sharing it with her.

Amy rolled back over to face her husband with a sad smile, her irritation subsiding. She wasn't angry with him; she was hurt by his actions. He didn't do it intentionally but his stubbornness coupled with hers made for heated arguments and lengthy holdouts that really only caused disappointment and grievances between them. She didn't want this to be the case now. The pink hedgehog reached out and stroked his quills back, causing his ear to twitch in response. For once she was going to drop the issue and leave it be. If he wanted to talk about it, she was always going to be there. If not hopefully he had the wisdom to know which burdens he could bear alone. She lay back down and closed her eyes ready for a bit of rest herself.

As the sound of three hedgehogs sleeping drifted quietly through the warm island air Rouge flew down to where she knew Knuckles would be staying for the night; at the foot of the Master Emerald. What she hadn't expected to see was the guardian sitting at the base of the powerful stone juggling three coconuts, literally. She quietly observed him with a bemused expression as he tried to add another coconut to his routine. The echidna did quite well, for about three seconds, then all four hard-shelled fruits fell down to the ground in an awkward fashion. One in particular decided to land on the poor guardian's head.

"Ouch," Knuckles shouted as he rubbed at the sore spot on his noggin and bent down to pick up the offending coconut. He knew he needed to practice that trick a bit more. His head snapped up when he heard some footsteps coming his way. He quickly hid the fruit by tossing them behind a nearby stone, not wanting to explain his little pass time, and then scrambled over to his respectable place in front of the Emerald. In the dim lighting of twilight he could barely make out the form of someone. However the closer they got to the Emerald's glow the more clearly he could make out who this someone was. "Ah, so we meet again," he said relaxing a little and taking a seat on one of the steps.

"Yeah, wonder how long this little get together will last," Rouge joked continuing to walk over until she reached the echidna and sat at his side. He smiled remembering Tails interruption from earlier. Then he gazed down at her as she wrapped an arm around his waist and drew next to him. He was slightly caught off guard by the gesture, knowing they hadn't fully apologized for their fight a month ago, but without hesitation he wrapped an arm around her shoulders and hugged back.

"Hopefully long enough," he said softly as the two sat in reflective silence. Rouge closed her eyes as she thought back on all the times they had done this in the past and how much she wanted to keep on doing this into the future. She wanted to tell him this but it was so hard to be that open and honest. She felt exposed just thinking about these feelings. It was nerve-wrecking and infuriating at the same time. She had always been a woman of assertive presence, getting what she wanted when she wanted it and not giving a rip to what others thought. But now she was concerned with what he thought and how he felt. She was trembling at the thought of actually having someone she loved and knew loved her. The mind of strong ambition met the gentle heart of affection. It was like . . . juggling. She got the image of Knuckles trying to balance coconuts and she couldn't help the nervous laugh that came forth. He leaned back from the embrace a bit giving her a strange look.

"I'm sorry but . . ." she started until she opened her eyes and looked up to him. She couldn't hold back a genuine burst of laughter as the picture of him stumbling with the fruit and bonking himself on the head kept replaying in her mind.

"What? What's so funny?" he asked backing away completely as she waved for him to give her some space. This only caused her to laugh louder, though it seemed she was trying to get a handle on the giggles. She took in a few breaths, trying to ease the fit off, but the moment she turned to the confused echidna once more, she cracked up again. "I don't get it? What are you laughing at?"

"I'm sorry . . ." she whispered as her laughing was now stealing her breath. She didn't even know why she found it so funny but tears were starting to form at the corners of her eyes. Knuckles scowled not finding the humor in this moment. This only served to get another howl out of the bat as she leaned into him trying to catch her breath.

"Sometimes you scare me Rouge. I don't see what's so hilarious around here, unless you're laughing at me."

She shook her head vehemently as she tried to look up at him and compose herself. It only served to cause more giggles and she held up a hand for him to give her a moment. The echidna crossed his arms and rolled his eyes as her chuckles subsided.

"Okay, okay I'm fine now, really," she said, a small snicker coming out at the end.

"You sure?"

"No . . ." she blurted as another wave of laughs came. Knuckles let out a heavy breath of frustration.

"You are laughing at me," he moped.

"No, no. Well yes, yes I am," she chortled. He grunted. "Now listen. It's because I saw you earlier. When you were juggling; yes I saw you. You were pretty good at it."

The guardian smiled with a little pride, even though his secret hobby had been caught.

"Until you dropped one on that knucklehead of yours," she laughed.

"Hey! I'd like to see you try it," he dared.

"Sorry honey, but I swore to my grandmother on her deathbed I would never become a circus performer," Rouge said with a straight face. Knuckles just stared at her.

"What?"

"I'm just kidding hon. You're just so cute when you're confused."

The guardian grunted again, but the smirk on his face showed that he wasn't really harboring any hard feelings.

"I resent that," he stated coolly, folding his arms out in front of him.

"Yeah, I'll bet," she held, crossing her legs. There was another moment of quiet.

"So, what brought you up here anyway?" Knuckles asked, hesitance in his voice as if the question might frighten her off. It wouldn't, but she did uncross her legs and rise to her feet giving the echidna her back. He undid his arms and looked up to her with anxiety building up in his frame. She had flown off so many times in the past, not to return for days, weeks even months. He never gave it much thought though before. She always came back.

"I wanted to talk to you about us," she began softly. He knew she was serious due to her tone and he could feel a hollow fear rise in his gut. He tried to ignore it. Being the sole protector of the Master Emerald, he had spent many years alone with these feelings; before Eggman, before Sonic and his friends, before Rouge. However once he forged these new relationships, loneliness dropped off as companionship became a constant in his life, just like his duty.

"About us?" he questioned gently as he too rose to his feet. She turned away slightly as if trying to hide her face from him. "Rouge?" He furrowed his brow as he lightly took her by the shoulder and turned her to face him. When he saw the tears in her eyes his heart ached with the realization he was taking it all, especially her, for granted. He didn't even realize how much it was affecting him until the bat reached up and wiped a tear from his cheek. They both gazed into the others eyes, each knowing what they wanted to say but having trouble finding their voice. That didn't seem to be a problem for a certain black hedgehog spying from close by.

"So, this is where I find you Rouge. I thought you and the echidna had a falling out, but obviously that's not the case, good for you," he said callously, startling the couple.

"Shadow?" Rouge exclaimed in agitated surprise. Knuckles glared at the approaching anti-hero and clenched his fists.

"You have a problem with it, hedgehog?" he shouted squaring off for a confrontation.

"As a matter of fact, I do," Shadow said evenly as he kept his pace towards the guardian. Rouge was a bit taken back by the hedgehog's behavior, not knowing Shadow to be so brash, but once the shock wore off anger set in. Just as the two males were about to meet she inserted herself in between them.

"Boys, stop," she demanded before turning to face the dark hedgehog, "Shadow what's going on, why are you here?"

He removed his glare from Knuckles and concentrated his gaze on her. She could tell he was upset and he could tell she was confused.

"I'll tell you why he's here, because he's an irritating jerk, that's why," the guardian grumbled, folding his arms in an aggravated fashion.

"Knuckles!" Rouge whispered harshly.

"If anyone's the jerk it's you, echidna," Shadow chided as he returned his narrowed eyes to the guardian. Rouge shook her head in dismay as the two shoved past her and began a shouting match face to face.

"You're the one showing up uninvited. I should just knock you flat out off my island!"

"I can be anywhere I wish and don't make threats you can't back up!" Shadow dodged a jab made at him by Knuckles and returned a punch of his own that made contact with the echidna's jaw sending the guardian stumbling backwards. Knuckles prepared to hit back and Shadow braced himself for another attack . . .

"Cut it out!"

They both looked to the white bat who was now fuming. Her gaze softened as she looked to Knuckles. "Please I'm sorry, we'll talk later I promise. Just let me deal with this okay," she pleaded with him. The echidna rolled his eyes heavenward, gave a snort to his adversary and trudged away to her request. She knew talking to the guardian would be a waste of time now as he walked off back towards the Emerald. She turned a sharp eye to Shadow. He showed his discomfort by looking away. "You, me, over there now," she barked stoking off towards the steps. Shadow followed until they were out of earshot.

"Rouge? I can explain . . ."

"What the heck Shadow? One minute I'm talking with Knuckles and the next you two are trying to knock each other's heads off! By all means explain away!"

"I was . . . You're making a mistake and I was trying to prevent it," he said coldly, turning his head away.

"What are you talking about? Knuckles!"

"Yes."

There was a moment of silence. Shadow continued.

"He's hurt you so many times in the past. I don't want you to get hurt again."

"Shadow . . ." Rouge sighed before going on, "I appreciate the fact that you're trying to help me, but I am very capable of taking care of myself."

"That's why you keep going back to him?" the dark hedgehog asked a little harsher than he meant to. His true feelings were slipping past his cool façade, but Rouge was way too upset to note the hint of fretfulness in the other's voice.

"What I choose to do Shadow, is none of your concern," she stated. The hedgehog felt the familiar pain of loss. He didn't even know what he was trying to achieve in all this anyway. He cursed himself for stepping in, for being there. He just should have left it alone; he just should have left to begin with.

"Fine. I won't _concern_ you again," he snapped before speeding off into the woods. Rouge sighed in disappointment. Now neither one of them would speak to her, at least tonight anyway, and she didn't even do anything.

"Men."

**_o_**

"So you're saying I can't get back until we get all the Chaos Emeralds, is that it?" Blaze asked from her seat across Tails.

"That's right and there's still no guarantee. I'm afraid I don't know why the Emeralds would have brought you here in the first place," the fox reasoned as he placed a device down on the table next to the green Chaos Emerald. The purple feline sighed as she folded a hand over the green Sol Emerald she allowed Tails to look at.

"Well, thank you for trying. I know you're busy with all the other plans and issues."

"It's no trouble really. I've already worked out a plan for tomorrow it just needs some fine tuning. So I have some time to work on this."

"To be honest, what bothers me more is the fact my Emeralds aren't responding to me at all. I can't even feel their power. It's like holding an empty shell," Blaze mused as she rotated the gem in her hand. Tails frowned for a moment until his features brightened.

"Wait! You know that one time when Sonic and I were transported to your dimension, the first time we met Marine?"

"Yes."

"And I built the SS Tornado Ex to get back to this world?" Tails said with excitement growing in his voice.

"Right, I remember."

"Both sets of Emeralds were stable at the time and that gave me the ability to build so quickly and use their power to get us home. It was like they were helping us in a sense. Maybe their trying to help again and we just don't know it."

"What do you mean Tails? I don't see how the Sol Emeralds losing their abilities helps us," Blaze stated, honestly baffled.

"May I?" the fox requested as he reached out a hand indicating he wanted the Sol Emerald back. The feline obliged by placing the stone in his palm. He hoped down from the stool he was on and walked over to a machine located just a few yards from the counter Blaze was at. The machine looked like a cross between an incubator and a barbeque grill. He placed both gems inside the glass compartments that rested at the top of the device.

"What are you doing?" Blaze inquired as she stood up to follow and satisfy her curiosity. Tails closed the door and hit a button on the machine before turning to the cat.

"I'm going to test their energy levels against each other. If our initial assumptions were correct and the Emeralds behave as magnets in some way I should be able to tell if the Sol Emeralds have indeed lost their power or displaced it somehow. Plus Sonic said the Chaos Emerald wasn't behaving properly for him either. If I can research and test them out a bit I may be able to find a clue in all of this," Tails informed in his thoughtful voice. Blaze nodded in agreement, knowing that if anyone could figure this out it was Tails.

"You can hold on to that Emerald as long as you need to," she replied.

"Would you mind if I took the others as well? I'll keep them under lock and key I promise," he added as he saw her worried face. With some thought she handed the fox the Emeralds and he took them, placing them in a hidden safe nearby. It wasn't like she could use them in their current state anyway. The two engaged in more conversation about their respective worlds and what had been going on as the fox worked. Interruption came in the form of Cream and Solana at around ten, shortly followed by Rouge and Omega. There was discussion of where everyone would sleep for the night, but Tails solved the problem by going to his closest and pulling out more camping gear. Rouge opted to sleep in her ship, taking Omega with her, while Cream gladly set up camp a little ways from the workshop with the help of Cheese. Solana decided to stay and help her boyfriend and Blaze work. Hours passed and exhaustion showed itself in the form of Tails' large yawn.

"Oh sorry about that," he apologized as he brought a hand up to his mouth to hide a second yawn.

"I think we should get some sleep," Solana soothed as she placed her hands on the fox's shoulders. He frowned a bit.

"But I still haven't figured it out yet . . ."

"Silly, it will be here tomorrow. You need your rest," she said more strongly as she guided him away from the computers and machines.

"But Blaze," he said turning his attention on the princess. She smiled understandably.

"She's right Tails. I'm getting tired too. We'll figure it out in the morning," she waved for him to go.

"See, she agrees. Now I already set up a place outside, because I knew you would be too tired to do it yourself and I am not having you stay in this shop. You'll be doing work in your sleep . . ." the dhole went on as she guided the fatigued genius out. Blaze stood alone in the stillness for a moment. Her mind bounced along several trails, such as her arrival in this dimension and the state of her own, her inability to use the Sol Emeralds and their inability to find the Chaos Emeralds, old friends and new faces and a romance that would never be and yet, a partnership that would never die.

She walked over and switched the lights off, leaving only the soft glow of both Emeralds resting in their cases. She quietly went back and sat at the counter not really feeling like setting up camp with the others. Her racing thoughts put up a hard fight against her weary senses. After a few minutes of being bathed in the warm light of the gems though, Blaze's eyes became heavy and she placed her head down on the table and slipped off into slumber.

_Creak._ Blaze's ears perked at the sound of the workshop doors cracking open. She lifted her head slightly, peering over her arms through the dim lighting to see a hedgehog making their way in. At first glance she mistook them for Sonic, but as they came closer it was clear Shadow was her nighttime visitor. Why was he here? She kept perfectly still as he approached. It appeared he hadn't noticed her even though she was only yards away, but his focus was on the gemstones before him. It didn't take long for the purple cat to realize the other's intentions and in an instant she was up from her seat.

"Don't take this the wrong way, but what in the world do you think you're doing?" Blaze demanded, keeping a sharp eye on the dark hedgehog's movements as she waited for his reply.


	10. Chapter 10

**In Due Season**

Chapter X

_Value is Found and Respect Begins_

He froze. He didn't think anyone was in here. Surprised, momentarily, Shadow turned to see the purple cat. He scowled as she approached. He didn't have to answer to anyone, especially her. However, out of pride's sake, he humored her question.

"I'm taking the Chaos Emerald, if you don't mind," he declared coldly as he stepped closer to the gem ahead. A wall of fire surged up from the ground, preventing the hedgehog from coming any closer to the stone.

"I do mind. I don't know why you want the Emerald, and frankly I don't care. I'm not letting you take it," Blaze said evenly as she closed the distance through the fire, squaring off between him and the Chaos Emerald, eyes still glowing from the recent use of her powers. Once the flames died down, Shadow glared across to the feline who stood in his way. He had no doubts about dealing with this setback head on. Even with his less than superior condition and her impressive powers, he was still the ultimate life form. She would be no match for him once he got a hold of that Chaos Emerald. He smiled smugly in this knowledge, finding humor in her confused expression.

"And honestly, who's going to stop me, princess?" he mocked. He could tell he struck a nerve as her eyes narrowed and her ears bent back. There was also the fact her hands were ablaze.

"I will."

As soon as those words left her lips she thrust one hand forward in an explosion of fire as she reached back and freed the emerald from its enclosure with the other. Shadow quickly jumped back to avoid the surprise attack and watched as the cat took off in a burst of speed out the door, leaving behind only a fiery trail. The hedgehog tapered his gaze and took off after her; not expecting super speed to be one of the feline's hidden talents. Lucky for him she wasn't as fast as Sonic, but her use of the landscape made a difficult time out of keeping up. The chase weaved between trees and boulders, going through streams and brush.

"Chaos Spear!"

A flash of light struck the cliff face just ahead of the feline and it began to crumble in her path. Her mind raced through options. If she turned now she would have to face her pursuer; advantage his, but if she continued forward there was the risk of being crushed. Only seconds to decide as she pushed forward, knowing he was right on her heals . . . that was it; she had her plan. Just as she reached the descending rockslide she hit the brakes, stopping short of the boulders that pounded the ground ahead. Her gamble paid off. Shadow, thinking she had the full intent of charging ahead through his minefield, had to skid in order to remain balanced. It only took a second, but that was enough time for Blaze to pick another direction and zip off once more.

The black hedgehog grunted in frustration but gave chase once again. That chaos move cost him precious energy; he was through playing. His earlier frustrations about his limitations in battle served to fuel an unspeakable rage towards Blaze. He wanted to take the Emerald and get back to Alyson. He wanted to leave this whole situation with Rouge behind and that darn cat was ruining everything. He rocketed forward locking on to his target as he maneuvered swiftly around obstacles. In seconds he overtook her and with one well placed kick to the side sent her flying back several feet.

She tumbled along the ground in a plume of dust and rocks, coughing in pain and distress along the way. She dug her claws into the earth, regaining a since of control and quickly tumbled back to her feet. This recovery was only rewarded with another attack, however, as the hedgehog broadsided her, sending the cat back to the ground. The princess' temper flared at the disreputable behavior displayed. She stood back up. There was no way she'd let him win.

Seeing him come back for another pass she countered by stepping aside at the last possible moment, grabbing his arms from behind and pivoting him down so that he slammed into the dirt- hard. He slid into a nearby tree with a loud crack while Blaze got into another fighting stance. He rose quickly to one knee giving his adversary a glare. He decided to end this swiftly with a super spin. He lunged forward in a tight rolling ball only to have his buzz saw strategy answered with a twirl infused with fire. He was successfully repelled by her action but not daunted. He tried again and again with different strikes varying from kicks and spins to even a tornado here and there, trying to catch her off guard, but she met him blow for blow.

The battle raged on between them. Blaze kept a firm grip on the Chaos Emerald and an even more solid defensive strategy on the hedgehog. She never let him out of her sight and kept him at bay with her pyrokinetic abilities. Shadow on the other hand was on the offensive with his sights set on the object in her hand. He was stifled in his ability to use Chaos energy but not completely drained. He determined that wearing her out with combat moves first was best, than he could bring out the proverbial big guns at the end.

After only mere minutes of this, they had turned the surrounding area into what looked like a warzone. Their appearances weren't fairing well either as Shadow had received several burns and Blaze quite a few bruises. They circled each other, one trying to maintain the upper hand while the other sought to take it. Finally, the hedgehog saw an opportunity in his opponent's faltered step on a tree branch.

Using what access he did have to Chaos he disappeared and reappeared right next to the feline. She gasped in shock at his sudden closeness but her reaction time was still fast enough. As he struck out a hand to snatch the gem from her she purposefully fell on to her back and reared up her legs for a kick. Shadow stepped back and avoided the blow, quickly grabbing her outstretched legs. She bit back a yelp as he squeezed tightly on her ankles.

"Give me the Chaos Emerald, now!" he ordered a scowl etched on his face. Blaze glared up at him.

"Never!" she spat as she rotated her whole body over, including her legs and the dark hedgehog. He let go of her in order to maintain his own balance and she quickly leapt to her feet and delivered a punch to the other's gut. It didn't get the result she expected though as he seemed to absorb the blow well. With icy eyes he looked up from his doubled-over state to her. She took a step back in concern. He stood up straight and thrust a hand to her throat so quickly she didn't have time to react. The cat's hands went to his trying to remove them. Her eyes bulged at the sudden pressure to her airway as he lifted her slightly and brought her closer to his face. Panicked yellow eyes stared into livid red ones.

"I will kill you if I have to," he stated darkly. Blaze could tell that he meant what he said and it was in that moment she knew exactly who she was dealing with. Her eyes matched his intensity of anger as she whispered.

"So will I."

She reached over and dug her claws into his arm allowing a rush of heat to flow through them. As he yelled out in irate pain, he threw her down to the earth. She let out a desperate gasp for air as she rubbed the soreness out of her neck while he patted at his burning arm. Both glared at each other with extreme emotion.

Shadow, irate that she wouldn't break as easily as he wanted her to, as he needed her to, couldn't get past her piercing gaze. Blaze, angry with the fact that he was so cold and ruthless, an echo of how she use to be, wouldn't back down from his icy stare. Neither one noticed the Chaos Emerald resting a few yards away; dropped in their last struggle and forgotten as they geared up to face off.

_**o**_

**He shivered from the lack of warmth and shuddered at the fear that gripped him. He had awakened in this cruel environment several times before, but for him, a small child, it never grew less frightening. The scary men always put him back into this box. Every time they took him away, they brought him back, every single time. Today was no exception. They had run all kinds of odd tests, strange experiments and peculiar examinations on him that he couldn't understand and all of which were very painful. Now he was back in his glass prison with only the company of other poor creatures that were squawking and screeching in their own subjection. The little hedgehog coughed and sniffled a bit as a few tears leaked down his face knowing that he was going to have to comfort himself alone again, but . . .**

** Suddenly there was a soft **_**click**_**. The door at the end of the hall had opened. Light poured in sending the other creatures into a frenzy of noise as a shadow was cast down the corridor. Fearing that it was his tormentors once more, the baby hedgehog crawled to the furthest corner of his cage, trying desperately to remain quiet though small whimpers were still escaping his throat. Without a word two figures made their way down to stand right in front of the hedgehog's aquarium. Another shudder of terror rocked his tiny body as one of the silhouettes reached down to him. He began to squirm and wail not wanting to be grabbed by the hand of this stranger. The visitor stopped, retracting their hand quickly.**

** "No, my poor baby," the figure whispered, a sob catching in their throat. The child recognized the sound instantly and all fear was traded off for the urgency of being held by this individual.**

** "Mama, mama!" he cried desperately stretching up as high as he could. She reached down to his outstretched arms and their embrace was warm, strong, but brief. The other figure, a dark shadowy figure with crimson eyes pulled on her arm.**

** "We have to leave, now!" It whispered in a harsh tone. The child's mother squeezed him all the more not wanting to let go. **

** "You said you could get us out of here," she pleaded anxiously. The figure let out a low hiss of air, covering their face with one hand and shaking their head.**

** "Not now," was their simple reply of pressure. The child cried into his mother's fur not wanting to lose touch with her again, but he was placed back into the cold box and she left, gone forever . . . **

"Mama!" Sonic cried out as he jolted out of his troubling dream, trembling at the memory of it.

"Um, no it's me, Espio. Is everything alright?" a voice came from outside the tent. It took a moment for both the chameleon's words, and reality, to register with the blue hedgehog. Sonic took in a deep breath and let out an anxious chuckle as he looked to his still sleeping wife and daughter. "Are you okay?" Espio asked once again.

"Yeah . . . so, what's going on? I'm sure you didn't come for a cup of sugar," Sonic asked as he crawled out of his sleeping bag and over to unzip the tent flap.

"I think Shadow and Blaze are fighting in the woods."

"Okay . . . wait, what? Shadow and Blaze are fighting? Are you sure?" Sonic inquired.

"It looked that way to me," Espio stated.

"When did this start? Geez, it's like not even dawn yet," Sonic yawned as he stood up and stretched; his dream placed on the back burner. Espio shrugged.

"I don't know. I thought you could tell me. One moment I'm resting by a nearby tree and the next, Shadow is slamming into the bottom of it . . ."

_Crack! Thud!_ The pair looked up to see a few trees toppling and flashes of light in the distance. Sonic shook his head.

"Let me guess, that's them."

"Yep."

Another snap rattled off which was followed by a small whimper from inside the tent. Sonic moaned as Kimi began crying. Amy startled awake at the sound of her daughter wailing. Then she became aware of the loud noises.

"What's going on?" she panicked as she grabbed up the baby in a protective fashion, ready to attack if need be.

"Honey, it's okay, I think . . . I guess Blaze and Shadow are fighting," Sonic informed over his child's cries. Amy let out a frustrated breath as she tried to comfort Kimi.

"Why? It's not even morning yet. "

"That's what I said. I don't know."

"Well how did it start?" Amy asked as she rocked Kimi.

"I don't care how it started, I'm gonna finish it before they destroy the whole island and keep her up any longer," Sonic gripped as he took off in the direction of the chaos, Espio following suit. Amy sighed, knowing she wasn't going to be able to put Kimi back down to sleep as long as a battle was taking place. Plus she would need to inform the others of what was going on, if they didn't already know.

_**o**_

Shadow was the first to act, charging at her with the intent of delivering a hook to side of her head. She blocked it and returned with an uppercut to his stomach. He heaved in pain but went around her and threw a side kick into the small of her back. She fell to the ground, knowing she was in a vulnerable position now. So to even the playing field she swept her legs under his feet, sending him to the dirt. Both jumped back up and the feline launched out with a round house kick.

The hedgehog dodged the blow and moved in with a series of high hitting punches. Blaze was able to move her hands into position for a block, but his fierceness and speed was breaking her hold and upsetting her balance. With a yell of execration she was able to shove him back with her crossed arms and quickly went into repeated crescent kicks. One made good on the hedgehog's head and the blow landed Shadow dazed on the earth. He looked up to see that she was about to bring an axe kick down on his head. He swiftly grabbed the offending foot before it did damage and twisted it sharply. Blaze cried out in pain but reacted all the same. She spun her body in the direction of her ankle's rotation, using her speed to propel her like a drill. Shadow's grip was broken and he screamed out at the strike to his chest from her spin, but the battle continued.

The two engaged in this ferocious system of fighting until Shadow used Chaos Blast. He wasn't getting anywhere with his usual attacks and he wanted to defeat her, he had to. He had to show himself that he could still do this. It wasn't as magnificent a blast due to his instability, but Blaze couldn't get away from the surge of energy due to her weariness. Instead she used the last bit of her strength to produce a shield of flames. Once all was settled, two pairs of knees dropped to the earth completely exhausted. The hedgehog and cat drew in raspy breaths of fatigue, sweat pouring down both their brows as they shivered in the pain from their injuries. However, they wouldn't admit defeat and their eyes were still locked in an epic battle as they stared the other down.

"They were over here!"

The two opponent's ears shifted in the direction of the voice that was approaching but neither broke their gaze.

"I can tell. Man, Knuckles is going to be ticked off once he finds out what they did to this place," another voice whistled; closer now. This voice was dreadfully familiar to each of them and for entirely different reasons the black hedgehog and purple cat felt the same emotion, embarrassment. They called a temporary truce in the stare down so they could look to see a pair of shadows walking up. One of the outlines clearly belonged to Sonic the hedgehog but the other was a bit vague to them.

Shadow wanted to stand. Everything within him begged for his weakened limbs to move, but all he got was a shutter of muscles refusing to budge. He didn't want to be found in this state by his blue counterpart nor admit that he was put into said state by the lady across from him. Blaze tried to rise to her feet, but all she managed to do was slide further down to the ground. She was ashamed of her behavior of allowing this unstable hedgehog, whom she only knew for a few hours; get the better of her temper.

"I just hope there's a good reason for all this."

Shadow finally recognized the second voice as Espio.

"Good reason or not, I'm sure . . . whoa," Sonic breathed as he reached the beaten pair set amongst a scene of smoldering ruin. "What the heck guys? When you two fight, you really _fight_ . . . are you okay?" he asked upon reaching them. The cat could feel her cheeks flush as the hero bent down next to her and placed a gentle hand on her shoulder. However she also saw Shadow's smug grin.

"Looks like a disaster area," Espio commented as he came to stand behind the group.

"What got into you guys anyway!" Sonic asked as he gave the dark hedgehog a hard glance before turning back to Blaze.

"Ask him, he started all this," she spat angrily.

"Yes princess, resort to the childish blame game," Shadow bit back.

"It certainly wasn't a childish princess who put you in your place tonight now was it," Blaze mocked. Shadow growled.

"Don't underestimate what I'm capable of."

"And what is that exactly?"

"I could of ended your pathetic life . . . !"

"Oh so that's what you call it . . . !"

"Hold it!" Sonic shouted. The two quieted but continued to glare at each other. "You two are really mad."

"You think," Both retorted to the blue hedgehog in irritation.

"Hey, I'm not the one out here trying to burn heads up or blow limbs off. I'm just trying to figure out why you find it necessary to wake everyone up doing so."

"I'm sorry Sonic," Blaze apologized while Shadow just snorted.

"So why were you two fighting?" Espio asked offering to help Shadow up as Sonic did the same for Blaze. The hedgehog and cat reluctantly accepted the support, but kept silent as the question lingered in the air. Why had they been fighting?

"I believe this might have had something to do with it," someone stated as they brought the Chaos Emerald into view of the group.

"Hey Tails," Sonic greeted as he balanced Blaze's weight evenly.

"I heard the commotion and Amy found me and told me what was going on so I decided to come check it out. I found this not to far over there," Tails stated as he pointed back to the trail of destruction. Sonic nodded to the fox's response and then focused his attention back to the matter at hand.

"The Chaos Emerald? Is that what this was about?" Sonic questioned.

"Shadow was trying to take it. I didn't know what his intentions were and he wouldn't tell me so I went ahead and tried to protect it from him," Blaze grunted as her muscles were screaming out in pain. Sonic shot a look to Shadow who only let out an annoyed breath.

"Always the team player," the blue hedgehog stated sarcastically, "Mind telling us what this is all about or is it a mystery, like everything else you seem to do."

"I don't have to tell you anything . . ." Shadow began sharply until Blaze cut him off.

"So why are you even here? If you're not here to help us then you're against us," she hissed. Shadow shifted his glare to her.

"If I were really against you I would have taken you out a long time ago!" he growled, though the force of his tone was clipped by his agonizing burns. The cat's temper was evident to Sonic as he felt her radiate heat.

"Hey! Let's argue this out later. Right now we're gonna get you back to camp and I have an infant to get back to sleep thanks to you two," Sonic interjected as he began walking, helping the feline along. Shadow's indigent frown didn't escape the hero's attention as they passed. "I don't think Rouge will be too impressed by your behavior either," Sonic said with a smirk.

"What's that suppose to mean?" Shadow barked out. The dark hedgehog hadn't realized how defensively that came out until he heard the other hedgehog's distant laugh. Shadow pushed Espio's assistance aside as best he could before limping forward, restraining himself from making any sounds of pain. The chameleon shrugged at the fox next to him and followed after them.

Tails looked down to the green Chaos Emerald in his hand and then to the destruction created around him by the two opponents. After a few moments of considerate observation, he turned and chased after the others, deciding to keep his thoughts to himself for now. The five had to travel a moderate distance back to camp and at some point in their journey Shadow was forced to accept Espio and Tails' help in bearing him up. However, it wasn't long until they heard a voice.

"Here they come!" Cream shouted as she spotted them walking up out of the woods. Amy was the first to reach the group, followed by the rest.

"Are you okay? What happened, why were you two fighting?" the pink hedgehog asked as she shifted Kimi to one arm and tried to help Sonic support Blaze. The feline tried to reply but just ended up trying to catch her breath instead.

"As far as I know they were fighting over the Chaos Emerald. I guess Shadow was trying to take it," Sonic interjected. This caught Rouge's attention. So that was the aim, huh? She trained her focus on the dark hedgehog who only sneered at her chastising gaze, though he did feel the familiar pinch of shame.

"Bring 'em both this way. We'll set them up in the workshop first, then talk. Solana and Cream go get some water," Amy directed as Knuckles took over her position supporting Blaze while she lead the way. Shadow began to resist immediately; not wishing to be babied any further or stay any longer.

"Omega, Shadow's hurt. Take him to the workshop and make sure he doesn't leave until I say so, no matter what," Rouge stated firmly.

"Affirmative. Shadow, come with me. "

The black hedgehog froze, looking to the white bat and approaching robot in horror. The chameleon and fox by his side both decided to allow Team Dark to handle their less then cooperative member and stepped out of the picture to follow the others.

"You can't do this. Stay away from me. I said stay back!" Shadow demanded as he tried to escape the assault android's grasping. As the hedgehog was scooped up by Omega and carried towards the workshop the government spy smirked at the hedgehog's protests while she came up from behind.

It didn't take long to get the two invalids settled down into some makeshift cots or for their wounds to be cleaned and dressed, but the heated discussion that took place afterwards was approaching its second hour with no resolution in sight.

Blaze voiced her anger with Shadow and his attempts to steal the Chaos Emerald while he was furious with her for getting in his way. Rouge began venting about the fact Shadow pulled this stunt on her after the deal which in turn the hedgehog felt some regret. Knuckles and Solana banned together in their campaign against the black hedgehog's reliability and more tempers flared. Cream tried to get the arguing parties to calm down but her pleas fell on deaf ears. Amongst all the yelling and quarrelling, Sonic stood, rubbing his temples, frustrated that this entire racket was keeping his daughter up and rattling his wife's nerves.

"Enough!" the blue hedgehog thundered, causing a sharp halt to the other voices, "that's better. One at a time, _please_."

"I say we let him leave. If he no longer wants to stay here then let him go," Solana stated quickly now that her voice could be heard.

"I agree," Knuckles added.

"Maybe it was just a misunderstanding . . ." Cream began.

"There isn't a misunderstanding Cream. Wake up! He tried to steal the only emerald we have for crying out loud!" the echidna exasperated.

"Check yourself Knuckles. Cream's been trying to get you guys to shut up long enough to listen and _think_ about what you're saying," Amy growled from her position just outside the workshop doors. She still had a very upset baby in her arms.

"Well, how are we suppose to think with all this insanity going on," Knuckles snarled back, igniting a flare of Sonic's temper. Before the hedgehog could give the echidna a piece of his mind, Rouge interjected.

"Calm down, Knucky it's not the end of the world . . ."

"You calm down!" he retaliated.

"Hey!" the white bat snapped reflexively.

"I can't be the only one concerned about this! Eggman's getting even crazier, we got killer robots tearing up all these cities and towns, Tails can't figure out a plan yet and we were this close to all seven Chaos Emeralds and didn't even know it! Then when we do get one back, he's trying to take it for himself!" the guardian exclaimed, desperation clearly the driving factor.

All was quiet except for Kimi's cries. The black hedgehog was the most affected by the statements, though his outward appearance gave away nothing. He absorbed more insight from Knuckles' declaration than anything up till then. Why did he really need the Chaos Emerald? Was this worth it?

"I do have a plan," Tails spoke up for the first time. They all turned in the fox's direction.

"You do?" Knuckles asked lightly.

"Yes," Tails stated simply as he watched a wave of reprieve fill the room.

"See guys, we're all freaking out and Tails is already ahead of the game. I knew you could do it, buddy," Sonic said with a faithful smile. Tails beamed back at first, but soon frowned. The hedgehog furrowed his brow in concern. "What's wrong?"

"Well, I do have a plan, but it involves a lot of components that need to happen simultaneously; Eggman's defenses won't allow for anything less. I had worked out a system of teams to do each task, but in light of all this I don't know how effective it'll be . . ."

"See, this is his entire fault. You should be ashamed," Solana grumbled as she pointed to Shadow who merely turned away. Rouge bristled at the comment and responded swiftly.

"Look, Shadow may be out of line here, but he's helped out a heck of a lot more times then you have."

"Yes, but for what purposes. I do not trust you, him or that robot you brought," Solana spat.

"We don't have to put up with any of this . . ." Rouge began.

"And we shouldn't have to put up with yo . . .

"Listen, we've all had to put up with a lot of things over the years!" Sonic interjected as the whole room turned to him. "But fighting amongst ourselves isn't going to help us get any closer to solving this. Look, sometimes we don't know where the other's coming from . . ." Sonic ebbed as he looked to Shadow who still had his head down, "And tensions can run a little higher than they need too. But, if there's one thing I've been able to count on my whole life, it's everyone in here choosing to do the right thing time and again. It's never failed me before," he paused. The group seemed to take his words to heart, thinking about their actions and intentions. "Besides, if we really have a good old throw down I want to be able to sell tickets first," Sonic quipped as he sent a thumbs up in their direction. There was a brief moment of laughter with silent apologies to follow.

"Maybe we should discuss this more once we all have gotten a little more sleep . . ." Tails stated, interrupted by his own yawn.

"I second that motion," Espio stated as he was the first to make his way out. While the heroes began filing out of the workshop, conversing amongst themselves and putting lights out, two sets of eyes looked to each other than to the emptying room.

"What about . . . us!" Shadow and Blaze called out lamely as they realized no one was paying any attention. They both sat in silence, facing the now closed door and listening to the voices growing softer and further. Neither one broke the quiet as they were uncertain of how to approach this situation. Mere hours ago they had been out trying to kill each other and now they were side by side in a temporary medical bay. Both their tempers had cooled off substantially enough to allow such close proximity to each other, but still.

Shadow was sour towards Blaze and even though her interference had made him second guess his taking of the Chaos Emerald in the first place, he would have preferred it if she hadn't of gotten in his way. It made things more difficult then they needed to be. Not only that but she had actually stopped him, the ultimate life form. It made him feel even more weak and pathetic then he already did. He stole a glance towards her, calling to mind her fierceness and determination in both battles against him and Eggman's robots. The feline didn't bluff or make idle threats, she did what she saw as right and for that he could not fault her. Still, he wanted nothing more than to just leave the island, maybe take Rouge up on her offer to fly him down in the morning.

For her part, Blaze didn't know exactly how she should feel about the situation. Here was a hedgehog who had tried to steal a Chaos Emerald and everyone seemed to forgive him even though he never apologized or explained himself. Was he really there to help or not? She looked over to him, shaken when she saw his downcast features and troubled expression. He reminded her of herself a long time ago; reserved, stubborn and even cold. She recalled her conversation with Cream yesterday. Shadow had found the Chaos Emerald first according to the others and she hadn't considered that fact when attacking him. She looked away to the case holding both the Sol and Chaos Emerald once again. Her outlook on things had changed for the better once she met Cream and Sonic, but her temper was going to need some more work.

"Shadow?"

The dark hedgehog looked up at the mention of his name. Blaze continued.

"I don't know why you would take the Emerald back after you gave it to us, but if they trust you, then so do I. Truce?"

Shadow considered her words. Even if he didn't like her he could respect where she was coming from. He decided that an understanding associate was better than a fearsome opponent. He nodded to her offer.

"I think we should get some rest if we want to be of any use later," the hedgehog voiced as he turned away from her and laid back.

"Agreed," Blaze replied as she did the same. Neither expected to actually go to sleep, not when they had a decent fear of what the other might do, but in a matter of minutes they were out.

_**o**_

Alyson paced back and forth in her kitchen, neglecting the cup of coffee that had grown cold hours ago on the counter. She was waiting for Shadow to come back or at least call her. He had gotten in contact with her around midnight saying he would be on his way once he finished some business. She had collapsed in a chair and dozed off shortly after the call, waking up hours later only to find her hedgehog companion still hadn't arrived. Now it was nearing six o'clock and she was nervous. What if something happened to him?

She stopped pacing and looked out of her dining room window to the winter scene outside. She had been deliberating for the past hour whether or not she should go to Kingsbury and see if everything was alright. She knew the dark hedgehog was well equipped to take care of himself and that he wasn't too keen on asking for help, but on the other hand, even though he wasn't always accommodating, he never failed in letting her know what was going on. It had been six hours since his last call. He had to be in some kind of trouble.

Without any further hesitation, Alyson grabbed her keys from the table and retrieved her spare gun from its hiding place in the china hutch. As she climbed into her car and started it up she failed to see a white van parked just up the street with its lights off. She pulled out of her snow laden driveway and made for the main road that would take her to Kingsbury; the van following at a distance.

Normally she would have noticed such suspicious activity, but her mind was preoccupied. Her thoughts were on Shadow and the slushy path before her not the strange vehicle behind her turning off its headlights as it approached. However, in a matter of seconds, she felt the thunderous impact of the van into her car's left back side. She let out a scream as her world began spinning on the icy road; the lights, snow and crash before everything went black.

**Author's Note: Sorry this chapter took longer to get up than I anticipated. I hope you enjoyed the epic battle between feline and hedgehog. Wonder what Tails' plan is? Hope to get the next chapter up a little quicker than this one, but all the same, blessings until next time.**


	11. Chapter 11

**In Due Season**

Chapter XI

_The Plan is Set and the Troops Will Go_

Omega wasn't really burdened with the need to sleep; just one of the perks of being a robot. Instead he was satisfied with the role of keeping guard over the workshop, making sure it's occupants made no more 'disturbances'. It was a peaceful watch though as Shadow and Blaze were too exhausted to make any more trouble. In fact, they were still asleep when Tails and Solana came into the workshop that morning. The two canines decided to let the pair rest as they addressed the current dilemmas.

Some of the others in the makeshift camp outside were trying to form a morning routine. Knuckles and Espio went to gather some breakfast while Cream and Cheese helped pack away sleeping bags and tents; Omega even chipped in once he realized his night watch was fulfilled. Rouge busied herself with trying to catch a few more winks in her ship, not being a day person really and the hedgehog family was . . . nowhere in sight? In truth, the couple was having anything but a peaceful morning.

Throughout the night Sonic had been plagued by more terrible dreams and was in no better condition than the night before. Amy may have been a heavy sleeper, but it had been impossible for her to miss his tossing and turning. She had questioned him several times about it and each time he would discount any problems and encourage her to go back to sleep. Now to his credit, if bad dreams and poor sleep were all that was bothering him, Amy may have let it slide, but it wasn't. The morning brought a noticeable limp to his walk and as he did a few excruciating toe touches, Amy frowned deeply.

"Sonic? I don't think you're okay," she stated softly coming up behind him, holding Kimi. He shook his head a bit and gave her a confidant grin.

"I'm fine Ames, never better. . ." he began until a groan escaped his lips involuntarily as he stood up straight. The pink hedgehog cocked an eyebrow incredulously. "I'm just a little sore that's all."

"Well, I don't think you are. If anything you should rest today, you look awful," Amy said sternly as she came around to gaze at his tired eyes. The blue hedgehog's smile fell away.

"Thanks a lot Amy. You look great too," he stated sarcastically as he walked forward. Amy glared. She knew that she had decided earlier to let him pick his battles, but this was ridiculous.

"I'm serious Sonic," she stressed.

"So am I. I've been through worse and made it. I'll be fine," he grunted. Kimi gave a small whine as she felt her parent's tension.

"Sure Sonic, whatever," she huffed, hurrying her pace and walking past him towards the others. She could hear his frustrated sigh, but didn't care. She had a right to be angry. Here her husband was exhausted, in all kinds of physical pain with very dangerous circumstances ahead of him and he wanted to play the denial card. What made it even worse was she knew she couldn't stop him from doing so or at least that is what she thought.

"Ames wait," he called after her, but she didn't turn. His unhappiness deepened. Why did she have to be so sensitive? He said he was fine so he was fine. Aside from the searing pain in his legs and the dull throbbing in his back . . . and there was the nightmares . . . Okay maybe she had a right to worry and request he take a break, but that didn't mean he had to, right? Right? The young hedgehog let out an exasperated breath of air as he watched his wife storm off. He followed after her at a distance.

_**o**_

"Rouge why don't you get out there and help!" Knuckles yelled as he banged on the canopy to the purple and pink jet. The white bat startled awake as the red echidna gave her a self-satisfied smirk. Cream and Cheese were looking on with apologetic faces. When the young rabbit had asked for help concerning packing up camp she didn't know the guardian would take that as an invitation to deliver a rude awakening. Rouge began shouting, but only muffled sounds came to the ears of those outside the ship. Knuckles just put a hand to his ear in a mock gesture. "Can't hear you Rouge."

He jumped down once the canopy began to rise.

"Can't a girl get any beauty sleep around here," she gripped, stretching a bit before floating to the ground.

"Why, I don't think it'll help," the guardian snickered. Before Knuckles could blink she gave him a quick smack against the back of his head.

"Ow, what was that for?" he whined, rubbing the affected area.

"Good morning, now don't make me smack you again."

The echidna got the hint quickly and slinked off before he received any more 'good mornings'.

"Now did you need anything Cream?"

"Could you please help me with the campsite, please," the rabbit asked sweetly, though with some hesitation.

"Sure."

The two packed a bit until the bat noticed a pink hedgehog coming up the trail.

"Hiya Amy, how's the little angel doing?" she asked, walking over to the young mother. Rouge reached down and gave Kimi a light squeeze on the cheek.

"She's fine now that she gotten a goodnight's sleep, isn't that right sweetheart," Amy replied as the baby gave the white bat a wide eyed stare.

"Yeah, but it doesn't look like the momma got one," Rouge implied as she saw the bags under the pink hedgehog's eyes. Amy sighed as Cream and Cheese also made their way over to see baby Kimi. The circle of females began chatting back and forth as Knuckles set down another basket of fruit he had gathered up. He rolled his eyes as he would never understand what the big fuss over babies was all about. Just as a chorus of 'awes' could be heard from the women over Kimi's toothless smile, Sonic came up the path Amy had.

"Hey Sonic, over here. You look awful."

"Thanks Knuckles. You're like the second person to give me that compliment today," Sonic stated snidely.

"Sorry man, get any sleep last night?"

"Meh. So, uh what's for breakfast? Don't tell me its fruit salad again?" Sonic groaned as he noticed the bundle of produce.

"Hey, fruits and vegetables are an excellent source of vitamins and minerals that give you energy and strength throughout the day."

"And what health nut billboard did you get that from," Sonic quipped as he reached down and grabbed a mango. Knuckles frowned and was about to make a reply when the doors to the workshop burst open. Everyone turned to see Solana standing at the door, her tail twitching with excitement.

"Come quickly, Tails has found something that is very important!" she instructed turning to lead the way in. Sonic, being the fastest thing there, was the first to follow her in; a hopeful grin plastered on his face.

"Whatcha find Tails?" he asked just as everyone else started bustling in. Under all the sudden commotion Shadow and Blaze stirred from their sleep, each in a confused daze.

"Remember the plan I was talking about last night? I think there's a way to shut down one of Eggman's main warehouses, possibly get a Chaos Emerald back and find out more information," Tails said as he brought a laptop over to the group gathered at the entrance.

"What's going on?" Blaze said, barely audible. The black hedgehog glanced over to her and then back over to the others. He held up a hand to shield his eyes from the incoming light. It appeared there was a plan. He motioned for the feline to be quiet, using a nod to refer her attention to the group.

"Go ahead Tails, lay it on us," Sonic prodded, trying his very best to contain the eagerness that was building within him. That same anticipation defined the atmosphere of the room as everyone leaned in to listen. The fox cleared his throat, placing the computer down on a counter in their midst.

"In past years we've never really been successful in destroying a main base of operations because we had no clue where to start looking . . . until now. I have to warn you though, there is some bad news in all this, but I'll get to that later. First, one of Robotnik's strongholds is just twenty miles from here in a nature-preserve called Crescent Falls."

"Figures he would build something out there. Should have thought of that sooner . . . wait, isn't that place a tourist hotspot. Why hasn't anyone else ever seen it before?" Sonic questioned starching his head. Tails frowned.

"That may be part of the bad news Sonic. Most of the locations on the clip Shadow gave me are located in areas where they should have been easily spotted by people, at least the government or . . ."

"Their military," Rouge interjected darkly.

"Exactly," Tails nodded. Sonic's expression was unreadable.

"Are you saying that they may be covering for Eggman?"

"I know you don't like this Sonic, but from the looks of it, their either blind or their turning their heads and letting it slide."

"Why would they do that? Eggman has caused the destruction of Station Square, blown up half the moon and endangered the entire world before. How could they want to protect him? It doesn't make any sense," Amy fumed in confusion.

"Because the threat no longer concerns them and their compassion no longer lies with us," Shadow stated emotionlessly from behind the group. They all turned to see him standing there, arms crossed, eyes closed and looking no worse for wear.

"You're talking about the humans, am I right?" Sonic questioned with the same amount of calm, but clearly the resentment of the accusation was clear in his eyes. The atmosphere took on a new tense silence, one that seemed to suck the air out of the room.

"Do I need to clarify?" Shadow voiced with a cold level of sarcasm, "We all know you'll defend them Sonic, you'd die for them, but would they defend us?" the dark hedgehog paused as he glared into his rival's eyes, "Answer? I didn't think so."

Sonic lowered his eyelids.

"I have an answer alright, Shadow. In fact, I have several and 'they' have names. Its' Molly, Chris, the Professor, the President, Hope . . ." the blue hedgehog listed as he ticked them off his fingers, "all people who've helped us one way or another. If that's not enough I have more . . ."

"Yes, but you've forgotten to mention that as many who helped us there were twice as many who didn't! Not to even mention the doctor."

"Shadow, let me handle this okay," Rouge interrupted. The dark hedgehog glared, but kept silent. "What handsome over here is trying to say is that we know not all people are bad, in fact most are good, but the leadership and military seem to have some flaws in their moral compass if you know what I mean."

"They have a point Sonic. I can't see G.U.N. over-looking a base this close to a public area unless it was on purpose," Tails stated as he looked to the hero with concern. Knuckles crossed his arms in irritation and narrowed his eyes at Rouge.

"So why didn't you tell us about your suspicions earlier?" he growled. Rouge glared back.

"I didn't have any proof knucklehead. I may work for them but that sure doesn't mean they're going to tell me 'hey we're in cahoots with Egghead' now does it."

"But how do we know you're not a part of this too," Solana accused. The white bat and red echidna turned their angry stares towards the dhole.

"We are not starting that again," Amy interrupted in a warning tone, silencing the group, "Please go on Tails. What do we need to do?"

"Right. Well, I used the green emerald to make a tracking device," he said moving over to grab a gadget that looked a lot like a handheld radio with the gemstone in its center, "It gives off a signal that should lead us closer to another. Since I really believe those robots are powered by the emeralds, I think we should break up into teams. One group should go check out the Crescent Falls' base and the other take this and find the Chaos Emeralds."

"I hardly believe you will need my help in accomplishing these tasks," Shadow deadpanned as he made for the exit.

"No, but Blaze may for her dilemma," Tails stated. The dark hedgehog paused.

"What do you mean Tails?" the purple cat asked as she approached them.

"Remember when we were studying the Sol and Chaos Emeralds, we noticed some kind of interference," the fox began as Blaze gave a nod, "Whether it was from Eggman or some other source I couldn't pinpoint, but when Shadow was present in the workshop this morning I detected the obstruction of energy was lessened. In fact go ahead and pick up one of the Sol Emeralds."

"Alright," the feline stated as she walked over and grabbed the green jewel. It was slight, but she felt its power again.

"Does it feel different?" Tails asked hopefully. Blaze nodded. "Stand closer to Shadow."

She did so and felt a sudden jolt from the emerald. She gazed at the dark hedgehog in awe, as he simply looked away from her.

"I don't see how this possible. I'm not doing anything," Shadow growled as he looked to Tails.

"Maybe you're more connected to this than you think?" the fox reasoned.

"You might be on to something!" Sonic said suddenly, past animosity forgotten, "When you came along Shadow, those bots stopped attacking us for a little while, remember?"

"Yes, but they had no trouble trying to kill me before I ran into you!" Shadow exclaimed as he turned to face the blue hero. He didn't like being the center of this discussion.

"You know, come to think of it though, they didn't really attack me or Blaze that much when we were helping you Sonic," Knuckles chimed in.

"True, it's like they were in heat seeking missile mode and I had the target on my back," Sonic mused.

"Wait, what? Why didn't you mention this earlier?" Tails stressed as he quickly set down the tracker and picked up his laptop. He began typing away while everyone around him began to reevaluate what happened yesterday. "This is bad."

"What? What's bad?" Knuckles voiced over the commotion.

"Shadow, where did you say you got this flash drive from?" Tails asked, looking to the black hedgehog worriedly.

"I downloaded the information from one of the doctor's bases, why?" he questioned, feeling uneasy again.

"Yeah, what does that have to do with anything we're talking about?" Knuckles asked.

"I've been going about this all wrong," Tails strained. Solana came up behind him and placed a comforting hand on his shoulder. "You got the Chaos Emerald from the same place, right? Did anyone see you while you were in the base or were you captured on film maybe?"

"Unfortunately, there were some surveillance cameras, yes," Shadow began until suddenly there was a noise from the door of a robotic nature. Everyone jumped in panic, ready to fight until they realized it was just Omega.

"Receiving mandatory orders from G.U.N command center for agent Rouge the bat-Report to section base 21 of the alpha quadrant immediately," the robot stated. Rouge gave him a weary glance.

"Now what do they want," she gripped silently before addressing the others, "I'll be right back. I just need to make a quick phone call. Don't get too far ahead of me now."

She walked out of the workshop towards her airship hoping she could get out of any orders for now. There was a pause in the conversation until a certain tan colored canine prompted more discussion.

"Keep going, we can tell her later. This is too important to wait," Solona pressured. Tails sighed but was also encouraged by Knuckles to continue.

"This is just a theory, but maybe those EBH-1 robots were after the Chaos Emerald that Shadow took. Since Sonic and Shadow look similar they might have confused one for the other."

"That could be true. That one robot in the hanger did look confused when it saw us," Amy said. Sonic nodded.

"Yeah, and we did have the Chaos Emerald . . ." he mused.

"But that's just it. If they are looking for the lost Emerald Eggman already had, maybe they don't run off the Emerald's power. It could be that my equipment read it wrong . . ."

"Or those robots weren't Eggheads," Sonic said in all seriousness. Everyone went silent.

"Why wouldn't they be Eggman's?" Amy asked.

"Well if they weren't the doctor's then guess who the next most likely culprits would be," Shadow stated coldly.

"I guess . . ." Tails started.

"I'm sorry to interrupt, but I still fail to see how the Sol Emeralds are affected by his presence," Blaze commented hurriedly. She hadn't meant it to come out that urgent, but she was frustrated that her gemstones were being influenced by some unknown source and that her only means of reprieve from such interference was the likes of Shadow. The dark hedgehog glowered at her.

"To be honest I don't have the answer to that, but the Chaos Emeralds might. I think you two should go look for the emeralds," Tails suggested.

"What?" Shadow said in disbelief. Blaze looked on with an equal expression of shock. Sonic couldn't help but try and bite back a laugh. The blue hedgehog turned to the fox.

"You're kidding, right? Tails, these two were trying to destroy each other last night and you want them to find the emeralds, together!"

Everyone seemed to agree with Sonic's logic, even Solana felt Tails forehead to make sure he was alright.

"Look, if Shadow is able to break the obstruction of whatever it is working against the emerald's energy, then he and Blaze should have no problem fighting those robots and getting the emeralds back. Plus, they're the only one's available to do so now," Tails explained.

"What do you mean? I thought we were going to break up into teams," Cream spoke up for the first time.

"We still are, but now we have two other things to check on: G.U.N headquarters and Eggman's base. Not to mention someone will have to stay behind as a point of contact. I was thinking Rouge and Omega could go back to the military and . . ."

"Omega had to leave," Rouge stated as she came back into the workshop.

"Oh," the fox said simply.

"Yeah, they wanted us to report back to HQ but I'm staying. They're just gonna have to deal with it. So what did I miss?" she asked

"Tails is breaking us up into teams. He wanted you and the metal man to go back to where you came from," Solana stated sending the conversation into another tailspin of disorder.

After an hour of vigorous debate and heavy-handed direction, harmony was finally restored. In all matters, Tails made it clear that it was best to have two or more on a mission for the sake of safety, so teams were made based on need and skill set. By the end of it all there was only one point of peculiarity that weighed on the fox's mind.

"Hey guys, where'd Espio go?"

_**o**_

"Shoot! She broke off communication, sir. She's not coming," Officer Henderson stated as he took off the radio headset. He jumped as General Davis slammed a hand on his desk.

"I just knew we couldn't trust that darned animal," he growled. Henderson lifted his eyebrows in astonishment.

"Excuse me, sir?"

"You heard me Henderson! That bat just refused a direct order to report to her duties. It's agents like her that have corrupted this whole blasted organization!" the general stated, fuming.

"Well I guess agent Rouge can be a little . . . unpredictable sir, but I wouldn't say she's corrupting the organization. She's done a lot of good work for us . . ."

"Are you taking the side of that insubordinate operative, officer?" General Davis accused as he stood up from his seat. Henderson could feel his heart rate increase. He hadn't meant to upset his superior, but he just didn't see why the general was so upset to begin with. Agent Rouge had defied orders plenty of times in the past; even the Commander let it slide.

"No sir, sorry sir," he replied looking the general in the eye with sincere regret. Davis stared back in sternness at first but it soon gave way to calm.

"No Henderson, you're . . . you're right. I'm just frustrated with all these new policies taking place and I shouldn't take it out on you or agent Rouge. Please forgive me."

"Okay sir."

"Look, why don't you go take a break. I'll probably join you shortly," General Davis stated. Henderson nodded, standing up and leaving the room. The general sat back at his desk and stared at his computer screen. On it was a correspondence from Lieutenant Todd reading:

_General Davis  
>5<em>_th__ division  
>11<em>_th__ department_

_Send documentation on project Geodesic via fax to division 9._

_Project Mach has been a success, will send results via fax to division 5 at your attention._

_Have Agent Rouge report to the tryst point a.s.a.p. for further training._

_Lieutenant Todd Crevan  
>9<em>_th__ division  
>Classified<em>

The general's gaze fell to the keyboard in front of him. He needed to let Todd know that step three to their scheme was not going as planned. Now all they had was that dumb robot heading to a top secret facility meant to contain those like the spy.

"Oh well," he breathed as he began typing up a formal letter to send back to the Lieutenant. Once finished, he sent it off, hoping to receive a quick response to an inquiry of what to do next. He stood up and left to have lunch with a few other officers in the department. When he returned about an hour later he came back to his desk to find that he had a response back from Todd.

_General Davis  
>5<em>_th__ division+  
>11<em>_th__ department_

_Report to the tryst point immediately. A jet has been prepared for you, hanger 9._

_List of items to bring:_

_...Project Geodesic updates_

_...E-123 override_

_...Clearance passes_

_Prepare for Agent Rouge's arrival and training. Bring as many operatives as needed._

_Lieutenant Todd Crevan  
>9<em>_th__ division  
>Classified <em>

General Davis smiled after reading the correspondence. He swiftly got up from his desk to prepare for his trip to the rendezvous base. After gathering all requested equipment and documents, Davis made his way for the door. His plan was to go alone, but Officer Henderson intercepted him at the exit.

"Where are you going sir?" the confused solider stated as he noticed his boss with a briefcase and a few folders. The general gave his faithful suburbanite a thoughtful glace. There was safety in numbers and Henderson was the most obedient young man he had ever known.

"I'm leaving on a special mission to section base 21 of the alpha quadrant officer and I except you to come with me. I'll need you to go collect your arms and meet me in hanger 9 understood."

"Yes sir."

"Good man," the old general said as he went down the hallway; Henderson dutifully leaving to gather his things.

_**o**_

With the rising of the morning sun seemed to come the renewing of a major headache for Alyson. She tried lifting her head up slightly; fighting the affects of unconsciousness but her chin fell back down to her chest in exhaustion. She was obviously in a seated position and she could feel that her hands were bound behind her back. Cracking open one hazel eye, the middle aged woman saw that she was indeed tied to a chair in what appeared to be a prison cell. Fear gripped her and confusion swirled around her. The last thing she remembered was being in her car.

"Where am I?" she whispered.

"Unfortunately for you, I can't say," a voice said from the other side of the bars. Alyson's eyes went wide as she found the energy to look up.

"Who said that? Please, what's going on?"

"I don't have to tell you that either lady, but since you said please . . ."

From the shadows stepped a rather strange figure. Alyson couldn't put an identity to it at first, but human it most certainly was not. Judging by the voice it had to be male and they were anthropomorphic, like Shadow's kind, but not a hedgehog. This being was also larger than her dark hedgehog friend yet had similar black fur covering their body. Alyson was so wrapped up in trying to figure out what this creature was to notice the harsh look encroaching on its features.

"Don't you have any manners? It's not polite to stare," they growled.

"I'm sorry I didn't mean to . . . wait. You're the one that has me tied up in a cell, where's the courtesy in that?" Alyson huffed as she fought a bit with her bounds to emphasis the point. However, she was a bit unnerved when the creature smiled, showing off its gleaming teeth.

"Plucky, I like that," it said coming further into the little light offered by a pathetic overhead lamp. Once Alyson saw the white markings on the being's head and tail along with the large claws on its exposed hind feet she immediately knew what species she was looking at.

"You're a badger!"

"Well, give the girl a prize . . . name's Bray," he drawled, leaning his weight against the bars and giving her a thoughtful gaze. Alyson looked away for a moment, knowing she wasn't in the best of situations at this point. It would be better if she played it cool at least until she could figure out why she was here to begin with and more importantly how to get out.

"Sorry. My name's Alyson, though you may know that already. Why am I here and what do you want from me?"

"Lady, like I said before I can't tell you anything. My job is to make sure you don't get out, that's all," Bray stated with an edge to his voice. To Alyson it sounded almost like he didn't want to be here anymore than she did.

"Can you at least tell me what's going on?" she asked. He waved her off and retreated back from the bars to a chair in the corner. "Wait, can you tell me where I am, please?" Alyson pleaded in the most pitiful voice she could muster. Bray let out a remorseful sigh.

"Look, to be honest, I don't know okay, but they're watching us," he stated in hushed tones, pointing to a security camera posted over his seat.

"Who are 'they'?" she whispered back. The badger shook his head.

"I can't talk alright. Now leave me alone and be a good hostage," he stressed, grabbing a newspaper from under a chair and unfurling it for his pastime. Alyson gave her own sigh of frustration, but her persistence was undaunted.

"Bray, I know you can tell me how long I've been here?" The badger merely turned his page, ignoring her. "Did you help bring me here? . . . Are you a prisoner too? . . . Is this underground; I see those stairs over there . . . did 'they' bring me here?" Alyson continued.

"Oh, this is going to be a looooong day," Bray moaned quietly. In spite of her circumstances, Alyson couldn't help but smile at the young man's frustrations.

"Maybe it wouldn't be so long if they had the decency to put a television in here or at least a window," she reasoned. Bray looked over to the older woman and to her surprise, smiled.

"Yeah, I've been asking them for months to do just that," he said softly, still displaying that he was uncomfortable with talking to her. Alyson knitted her brows together. Even though she was brave in most situations, with nerves of steel in the worst, the fact that her captor appeared to be uneasy made her worry. For now she would have to wait and see what was in store for her as the badger lifted the paper again. The only thing she could do was study the dim prison cell for any advantage she could use later and pray that Shadow was on his way.


	12. Chapter 12

**In Due Season**

Chapter XII

_The Measures Fail, the Truth is Known_

_**Tick. Tock. Tick. Tock.**_** An old grandfather clock marked the seconds as they passed in a small cabin; the young hedgehog of the cottage watching the timepiece with enthusiastic interest. It wasn't that his life was particularly boring, in fact it was quite the opposite, and so that's why moments like watching a clock tick by were unusual for him. The youngster was expecting something or, more accurately, someone; an elderly muskrat to be precise, with kind eyes and a wrinkled smile. She always went out and she always came home, so the little hedgehog waited. **

** As he did, memories of his adoptive caregiver's past comings and goings floated up to mind, the first being the fresh apples and blueberries she would sometimes bring home. There would always be pies and breads to follow, not to mention cider and pancakes. The five year old hedgehog's stomach growled at those recollections, a reminder that he was so hungry. The second thought was of the older lady's stories for that day. She would always have a good tale to weave, either from times past in her youth or today at the market. His ears itched for the opportunity to hear her voice again and a few tears came down his face. When was she getting home?**

** His eyes darted to the window as he saw the sun was starting to set, again. Another day and she still wasn't back. With a heavy heart he leapt down from the large armchair and rummaged around the cupboards to find something to satisfy his hunger. He settled on some crackers, dry, unappetizing crackers, before grabbing a blanket from the old woman's bed. It still smelled like her. More tears came down his cheeks into the red fabric. He made one last stop to collect a music box and then crawled up onto the window bench to curl up. Next to the pane of glass with his box of saltines and cover of comfort, he was ready to stand vigil for another night. As he munched quietly his eyes raced through the scenery in front of him. Whenever she was home he was allowed to run around till dusk and then come in for a hot meal she prepared all for him. It had always been that way since the day she found him. He remembered that too.**

**He had been alone in the woods searching for someone, probably his parents, but he would never know for sure, being only two at the time. He was cold, wet and hungry but then she showed up with a basket. **

"**Oh dear me," she had said. The young blue hedgehog took a liking to her immediately partly due to her soft, gentle voice and the offer of the fruits she had in her basket. She had taken him home, cleaned him up and fed him; took him to town to find his parents only to find no one knew who he was or where he came from. Without hesitation she took him in. He smiled at the memories of her; his Memi. **

**He reached over and opened the music box, the ones Christmas Island was famous for. It chimed out the song 'What Child Is This'. It was one of her favorites and his too. She often went to town to get things like this and sometimes he would go along. Other times she left him home, knowing he could take care of himself for the most part. However, when she was away he was supposed to stay in the house, just in case. He fudged the rules sometimes, but she was always forgiving and he could depend on that. She always came back with love, something he needed.**

"**Where are you Memi?" he cooed to himself as his eyes continued to scan the forests and paths. His vision grew dim though as the hours progressed and exhaustion worked its way through his tiny frame. The music box played on as he slowly drifted off to sleep. **

_**Tick. Tock. Tick. Tock. Crunch.**_

**The little hedgehog jolted awake. It was morning already, but something was different. **

_**Crunch. **_

**It was the gravel outside on the path. He looked out with excitement. She must be home! His eyes darted out and locked onto . . . a sign, then the two chipmunks hammering it into place. Always curious, he climbed down from his window seat and cracked open the front door. He could hear them talking.**

"**It's a real shame," one said. 'What was a real shame? What did shame mean?' thought the youngster.**

"**Yeah, did she have any family?" the other asked. What were these men doing here and why were they putting up that sign.**

"**No, her husband died years ago and I don't think she had any children. Oh well."**

"**Still, no one found her until yesterday?" the chipmunk shook his head. The little hedgehog's brow knitted in concern. Were they talking about Memi?**

"**She lives so far out here; it's amazing she was found at all."**

**They were talking about his Memi, weren't they? She had once said that they were the only one's out here. It was peaceful she said. She had lost somebody very close to her she said and he reminded her of him she said. Maybe they could help him find her. **

"**Yeah, they say she must have died of a heart attack or something. It's going to be a lot quieter out here with old Miss Memi Hagins gone."**

**He froze. Gone? No. Gone was a word meant for the bottom of an empty cookie jar not his guardian? **

**The two rodents walked away and the hedgehog opened the door all the way. He timidly walked up to the sign that the two men had just posted and looked up. He couldn't understand why this word was posted in big, bold letters. It read: **

'**Auction'**

**But it meant 'orphaned once more'. **

"I never thought I'd say this, but hurry up Sonic!"

The hedgehog looked up at the sound of Knuckles' shouting with a start. He was zoning, again. Even Tails had glanced back from his position at the head of the group this time. The trio had been going through forests surrounding Crescent Falls in an effort to find the definitive weak link in Eggman's plans, but something else seemed to be weighing heavily on their lagging team member's mind.

"Huh? What? Oh, sorry," the speedster apologized as he ran up and matched pace with the red echidna. The guardian gave a concerned glance to the hero.

"Are you okay, man?" Knuckles asked. There was brief hesitation in the hedgehog's eyes. How could he tell the echidna what was bothering him when he wasn't too sure himself. That . . . that memory . . . he hadn't thought about in years . . . it still stung.

"Yeah . . . I'm fine."

There were a few moments of silence between them. Sonic's mind rolled over the lingering recollection and how it related to what was going on now. The only thing he could come up with was that he was still haunted by the argument brought up by Amy; what would happen to Kimi if they were . . .

"You sure?" the guardian asked, breaking his thoughts. Sonic looked away, not wanting to spill out the anxieties he had. All Knuckles saw was a smirk replace the moment of pain on the other's features.

"Yes, mama Knucklehead I'm sure," the hero quipped as he dodged a smack from the displeased echidna.

"I swear you never take anything seriously! See if I ever try to help you again."

"Okay, okay. Look, I'm sorry."

"Yeah, right."

"No really, I was just distracted that's all. I'm okay and thanks for asking," Sonic stated. Knuckles didn't look satisfied.

"And . . ." he pressed.

"And, I'm sorry I called you a knucklehead," Sonic added, albeit lamely.

"And . . ."

"And what? I don't see . . ." Sonic was interrupted as he walked right into a low hanging branch.

"And . . . that makes up for it. Alls forgiven Sonic," Knuckles smiled as he continued on his merry way after Tails. That is until he felt something cold and wet smack him in the back of the head. He turned around to receive another blow to the chest. Sonic looked back at him with a grin as he tossed up a snowball in his right hand.

"You're gonna get it now," the echidna seethed as he dove down to gather some ammunition of his own.

"Bring it on," Sonic said smartly. Tails shook his head but smiled as he heard the snowball 'war' going on behind him; just like old times.

"Times before all this," he said quietly to himself as his eyes met with the unmistakable signs of destruction. "Guys!" he shouted back.

_Smack. _The two tailed fox was caught right in the face with a stinging ball of ice. Sonic was immediately at his side apologizing.

"I'm sorry Tails. I didn't mean to hit ya. It's just knucklehead ducked and all . . ."

"Hey don't blame me," the echidna gripped as he came up closer, "You started it."

Tails wiped the snow off his face and gave a small sigh before he addressed them saying, "Guys, look."

"Wha-" Sonic stopped as he looked over the hill at the charred remains of what use to be two miles of gorgeous wilderness. The majestic woodland had been completely cleared; the earth beneath it marred by deep trenches. Decomposing vegetation was in heaps off to each side of this unnatural blight on the land.

"What happened?" Knuckles asked as Tails began typing on the device he had brought with him. The fox walked around, collecting samples and skimming the screen of his machine with concerned eyes. He paused; his young features twisted into deep concentration, accented by uncertainty.

"What is it buddy?" Sonic inquired as he read the expressions on his best friend's face. Tails turned to look at him with an unreadable emotion. This worried the hedgehog.

"I don't know Sonic, but it can't be good. My equipment states that the EMRs in this area are very high, but there's no solid structure or a point of origin that it can detect. I'm also getting readings that there are residual traces of antimony trioxide but readings of the surrounding debris indicate the fire was burning for quite some time," Tails said as he walked forward a bit. Sonic and Knuckles blinked.

"What the heck's an EMR?" the guardian exclaimed. Sonic sighed and ran up to cut the fox off.

"Could you break it down for us a little?"

"Sorry. Uh, what I'm saying is that this part of the forest was protected by fire retardant but it looks like it caught fire anyway. Think about it though, who would cover a forest in flame retardant and who would do all this?"

"Yeah, wonder who," Sonic said snidely.

"EMR stands for electromagnetic radiation Knuckles . . ." Tails began.

"Thanks Tails, because that clears it up for me," the guardian said sarcastically.

"There's a large amount of infrared and radio waves coming from this area but I can't pinpoint form where. There could be a relation," Tails explained.

"I think I follow ya. If we can find out where the source is maybe we can find out what this is all about," Sonic said with a smile. He always loved to get right down to the matter.

"Maybe, but that's just it Sonic. I can't find it."

"No prob. That's when a little bit of sonic speed comes in handy," the hero grinned. In the blink of an eye, the blue hedgehog was off combing the area, cutting across the landscape in long strides. Knuckles folded his arms with a scowl.

"Pfft, showoff."

Tails rolled his eyes and then returned his gaze forward as Sonic came barreling back towards them. He stopped just short of hitting the pair, sending dust and debris in their direction. They coughed and sputtered in response.

"Sorry about that. I think I found something though."

"Yeah and you got it in my eye you moron," Knuckles said with a sneer as he rubbed the affected area.

"What is it?" Tails coughed.

"Over this way, let me show ya," Sonic said with a chirp as he grabbed the two by hand and took off in a burst of speed. Fox and echidna yelled alike as they were neither ready for the sudden acceleration or stop. They both plopped to the dirt. "There we are."

"What the heck is wrong with you?" Knuckles yelled as he shot up from the ground and into the hedgehog's face. Sonic gave the echidna a causal glance and an even more casual shrug, causing Knuckles to grow angrier. "Why, I ought da . . ."

"Keep it down Knuckles, I'm trying to concentrate," Tails whispered back harshly. Sonic smiled while the guardian seethed quietly. The fox however kept a focused look at the small antenna Sonic had found.

"This doesn't make sense," he mused.

"Well sure it does. You said there were radio waves and there's an antenna, right?" Sonic asked. Tails couldn't help but shake his head and laugh at the hero's simple explanation.

"Sonic, my readouts are off the charts. This tiny receiver can't be the source of all this."

The hedgehog deflated a bit as Knuckles smirked.

"Not so smart now, huh? Look, I bet if we just follow the trail of destruction we'll find out who's behind this," the guardian stated as he began to walk in said direction.

"Not if I beat you to it," Sonic shouted as he ran past the echidna. Knuckles sighed, but began running after the hedgehog all the same.

"Guys wait!" Tails shouted, but it fell on deaf ears, "It could be a trap," he stated lowering his head.

_o _

"Why did I agree to dis again," Solana said with a groan as she lifted the crying baby hedgehog out of its crib. Cream could tell she was uncomfortable with the process of holding the little one.

"Because we're helping Sonic and Amy out. If they can finish their missions, maybe all this fighting can stop," Cream stated bluntly as she handed a warm bottle of milk to the dhole. Truthfully, the rabbit was becoming tired of the other's complaining, but tried to remain as pleasant as possible. Both had volunteered to stay behind and watch Kimi while the others completed their assignments, but the canine seemed to be more reluctant about it.

"Yes, well, it doesn't help that this child needs to eat every fifteen minutes," Solana scoffed as she inserted the bottle into Kimi's mouth. The little one hungrily drank in the milk, only stopping to take short breaths before starting up again. Despite her dislike of the chore, the dhole couldn't help but smile. The baby hedgehog was cute with her half-lidded eyes, suckling.

"I think that's because infants can't eat as much at one time. They have to spread it out. That's why it looks like their hungry all the time, or at least that's what mom says. Amy thinks she gets it from Sonic though," Cream grinned as she pulled up a seat to watch the baby too. She really enjoyed taking care of Kimi.

Solana let out another pout. The dhole knew that after the child depleted the milk it would need to be burped. She had seen the ritual enough times to know that meant spit up milk. She really didn't want any part of that, especially since she had other things weighing on her mind.

"Take her please. You do the burping," she ordered more harshly then she meant too. As she handed the baby over her thoughts went to the unpleasant concern she had been dealing with for months. It sat like lead in her stomach some times and hung over her head like a terrible cloud others. It dragged her spirits down and it soured her attitude and behavior towards others. She normally wasn't this moody with anyone, even Shadow and Rouge, but she found herself snapping at everyone lately, including Tails and now Cream. The dhole was only sure of one thing, she was miserable with herself.

"Are you okay Solana?"

Cream's question threw the canine off guard as she glanced at the worried expression on her fellow babysitter's face. Her own troubled features hadn't gone unnoticed by the keen eyed teenager.

"Yes. I'm sorry I was so rude . . ." she trailed off.

"If there's something bothering you, you can tell me. I promise to keep it a secret if I need too," Cream said as she rubbed Kimi's back; the infant placed over her shoulder like Amy showed her. Solana gave the ground a contemplative look. It might help to share this burden with someone, but at the same time shouldn't that someone be Tails.

"No, I think I just need to get some air. Will that be alright?" she asked rising to her feet. Cream nodded knowingly just as she got a pretty loud belch from the hedgehog. Both females looked down at the baby and laughed.

"Sonic would have liked to hear that," Cream chuckled as she wiped Kimi's mouth. Solana smiled before making her way towards the door.

"If you need me, I'll be just outside here."

"Okay," Cream chirped as she looked back down at the baby hedgehog. With brilliant green eyes, a black button nose and soft violet fur, Kimi had to be the cutest baby the rabbit had ever seen. It was always a joy for her to see the new bundle. It brightened her spirits every time. It also excited her to think of herself as an aunt, considering she had no other family besides her mother. Amy was the closest thing she had to a sister and therefore it was natural to think of Kimi as a niece. The rabbit smiled as she rocked Kimi back and forth thinking of how someday she may have a family too. The gentle moment between them didn't last long though as a loud bang came from outside.

Cream hissed in pain as she discovered a downside to holding a frightened baby hedgehog. Kimi had curled up instinctively at the noise, delivering some sharp pricks to the rabbit's fingers. Despite this, Cream held tightly to the baby as the lights in the hanger flickered off.

"What's happening?" she whispered to herself. Cheese came closer to her as the sounds of a struggle began outside. She rose up swiftly and headed quickly but quietly for the window, hoping to catch a glimpse of what was going on. However, as she reached the glass a breeze blew through, ruffling her dress and ears. Her eyes darted to the door to find it open. A figure stood in the entrance way. She knew it wasn't Solana, they were too tall. Ducking down, she hid behind some equipment, praying that they hadn't spotted her.

"We know you're in here Miss Rabbit," the stranger said as he stepped into the workshop, brandishing an odd military rifle. Cream lowered herself down further. Cheese came to rest on her shoulder as she peeked out from under the computer table. She could see more men coming in behind the first; beams of light shooting in every direction as they turned on flashlights. How did these men get up to the island? Why were they here? Where was Solana? "Surrender now and we'll make this easy. No one has to get hurt . . ."

Cream pulled her head back as light shined where she was. Kimi burred at the sudden movement. Her breath hitched as footsteps came towards her. What was she going to do? Fighting back wasn't an option, Kimi could be hurt. Hiding was a better alternative, but could she do that for long? Running and calling for help was the best choice but how . . .

"Chao! Chao!"

Cream looked over to see that Cheese had left her side and flown out into the middle of the action. The soldiers all turned in the chao's direction. Her friend was providing a distraction; this was her chance.

"It's just her pet. Stay focused men . . . wait! There she goes! Fire!" the leader shouted. The teenage rabbit didn't even bother to look back as she ran for the back door; the sound of gunshots following. Her hand wrapped around the handle. She flung the door open. Then her leg stung.

"Ah!" she yelled out in pain as Kimi began crying. Cheese reacted immediately to their anguish and launched into a full scale assault on the men around. Grunts and shots were heard from the armed forces as their guns were knocked from their hands and their legs out from under them. After that the chao quickly went to the aid of Cream who had already begun to fly using her ears. Cheese came up behind her to add a boost. The two traveled into the forests of the Floating Island ignoring the shouts of the soldiers behind.

"I . . . I'm so tired," Cream said with a slur as they started to decline. Cheese tried to support all their weight but knew they needed to land soon. The trio came to rest in a patch of treetops. Luckily the branches were rather thick. Cream leaned heavily against the trunk, her brow gathering sweat. She looked down to her leg and saw that it was not a bullet that hit her, but a dart. Her eyes widened in horror.

"Chao?"

"Cheese, I need to . . . make a sling . . . for Kimi," she stammered. She took off her scarf and wrapped the baby hedgehog in it snuggly, before tying the bundle to the tree. She then wedged herself deeper into the branches. "I might pass out Cheese . . . you have to keep Kimi safe . . . up here."

"Chao?"

Cream drowsily looked up at the stars as her original intent came to mind. She reached into her pocket and pulled out her cell phone. Her fingers moved over familiar buttons but her senses were dulling. The phone slipped out of her numb hands and her head rolled to the side limply.

**o**

"I can't believe I . . . maybe I should have handled it differently," Amy whispered from her position in the passenger seat of the Highlander. Rouge glanced back.

"Stop beating yourself up honey. To be honest I think you're doing the right thing," she said, guiding the jet along. For the past twenty minutes, or so, they had been discussing Amy's arguments with Sonic before they left. It was a bit repetitive in nature, but the white bat had finally decided that having Amy along on this objective wasn't such a bad idea. The pink hedgehog packed a punch when it came to tight situations and nothing was tighter than trying to dig up dirt on your present employer. Besides that, Amy made for good company, considering the government agent usually worked with those of brooding character.

"I don't know . . ." Amy said quietly as she really thought about the decision of 'letting things go' or more accurately letting her family out of sight.

"Look at it this way Amy. Even if you stayed back and somehow convinced Sonic to do the same, Dr. Eggman would still be going to send out more robots to destroy even more cities and towns, plus people's lives. The way I see it, you can hold on to your family all you want sweetheart, but in the end if we don't act now, there won't be anything left to hold on to," Rouge said in all seriousness. Amy knew there was truth in those words. Still, it didn't take away the agony of a possible loss.

"I know Rouge, it's just I worry sometimes that maybe I'm not cut out for this anymore . . ."

"Now don't say that, Amy. Look, we all worry. I worry."

"Yeah?"

"Yeah. It's not easy doing what we do and I can only imagine how difficult it is to have a husband and a baby to worry about. If anything Amy, you're tougher than all of us, except for maybe Vanilla," Rouge grinned. Amy smiled too. Perhaps, it was time to lighten the mood just a bit.

"Thanks. Actually, I've been talking to Vanilla a lot lately. I guess since were both mothers now we have more in common. It's kind of strange how that is huh? I like talking with her though because I can go on and on about Kimi. I know not everyone wants to hear every detail of my baby's life," Amy said in light humor. Rouge smiled good-naturedly.

"Thank you Vanilla for sparing us all."

Amy laughed, but soon had a thought.

"You know Rouge, I don't have any married friends though," she said slyly, hoping her tone didn't go unnoticed. The bat smirked. She knew where this was going but still, she decided to take the bait anyway.

"Is that right? Maybe you should make some."

"My thoughts exactly. So are you and Knuckles still . . ." Amy paused not knowing how to phrase the couple's relationship.

"Yeah, knucklehead and I are still together, if you can call it that. We're working things out," Rouge said matter-of-factually. The brave face was evident in the bat's features, but the truth of her heart was a little more fragile than that and Amy could hear it in the tone of her voice. It was obvious to her that Rouge still loved Knuckles even after the broken engagement and, if Sonic was correct, the red echidna still had the "hots" for the white bat.

"I think you should just tell him how you feel and how much you love him," the pink hedgehog said kindly. Rouge kept her gaze set forward, but a sigh escaped her lips.

"Yeah, if only it were that easy . . ."

"I think it's easier than you think. Hear me out okay," Amy said in response to the skeptical look she received. "Sometimes we want something so badly that we end up driving it away . . ."

"Speaking from experience are we?" Rouge added with humor. Amy rolled her eyes, but continued all the same.

"Yeah, okay, but seriously, I found out that being sincere and patient worked out a lot better than being hasty and pushy. Maybe, being subtle and mysterious needs to give way to a little more understanding and open."

Rouge pondered the suggestion for a moment.

"You know honey, sometimes you show a bit of wisdom beyond your years," she smirked. Amy smiled.

"Sometimes, huh?"

"Yeah, sometimes."

They both laughed until the ship lurched to the left violently. Amy knocked her head against the canopy in the process, while Rouge quickly pulled the jet back into stability. Alarms went off as she did so.

"What the heck was that!" she exclaimed running her hand along the display board for status reports on her vehicle. Amy tried looking out of the window as she rubbed her sore noggin.

"I can't see anything, it's too dark," Amy voiced over the commotion.

"I can't believe this! Amy, we may have to bail if I can't land this thing. The right wing is damaged and we're losing fuel!" Rouge vented as the ship began to shutter. Amy braced herself by gripping the seat, feeling her insides twist into knots. The government agent yelped as the steering column erupted into a shower of sparks. There was no way she could land safely. Quickly, she undid her seat belt, asking for Amy to do the same. Once the hedgehog realized what was going to happen she grabbed her pack, knowing it might come in handy.

"Hold on!" Rouge instructed, grabbing Amy's forearm. With one hand the bat switched the plane on auto pilot and pulled the lever to release the canopy. The pink hedgehog felt her stomach lurch as Rouge propelled them into the morning air, free of the ship. She had done this with Tails a few times in her younger days, but under these circumstances she could feel her adrenaline shooting through the roof. Luckily for her, Rouge was a lot stronger in her lift abilities than the two-tailed fox and they were soaring clear of the ship's burning trail to the ground.

"Well, if that doesn't wake you up," the bat huffed as she reached down and took Amy's other extended hand.

"What hit us?" Amy asked as she began scanning the area for anything threatening. Rouge frowned.

"I don't know, but maybe it would be better if we kept a low profile," she said gliding into the cover of the trees. They traveled for a bit longer until Amy spotted a clearing and a possible chance for them to get their bearings.

"I managed to save the GPS Tails gave us. I think I'll call Sonic first though, let him know what happened," Amy whispered as she began rummaging through her backpack. Rouge placed a firm hand on the hedgehog's shoulder and motioned for silence as her ears swiveled about. Amy held her breath without realizing it as she listened intently too. There were voices coming from their left, heading towards them.

"How do you know they didn't shoot down a pigeon?"

"Look, we don't know what they shot down. That's why they sent us stupid."

"Yeah, but what if it really was a bandit?"

"Nathanial, cut it out with the air force jargon. Nobody knew what it was, but it was too close to the facility and we can't risk it being another one of those crazy robots. Now shut up and start looking for something."

Amy and Rouge decided to remain silent and take up hiding behind some nearby brush until they had a better understanding of who these people were. They watched as two armed G.U.N. soldiers came out into the clearing from the other side. The hedgehog turned to the bat for guidance on this one.

"Do you think this was just all a misunderstanding?" Amy whispered. From the look in Rouge's eyes, it was clear she was weighing the odds of that question carefully.

"It may have been. Let me do all the talking. You stay hidden just in case," the bat said quietly as she stood up slowly from their hiding place. She wasn't too keen on creeping up on two paranoid armed men, but she wanted to make sure Amy reminded a secret.

"I hate mornings," the lead officer said gruffly.

"I know right, especially when someone decides to attack your commute like that."

Both soldiers turned quickly aiming their guns at the newly appeared form.

"Officer Hawthorn and Morgan of Gun's special op 15. State who are you and what your business is?" Hawthorn shouted as he turned his scope light onto the bat. He froze.

"Now, is that any way to treat a lady, but if you must know it's special agent Rouge the bat. I was on my way to speak with the Commander, but it seems my ride was . . . rudely interrupted."

Both soldiers lowered their weapons, looking like stunned children.

"Uh, were sorry . . . its' just a lot of talk about the robots coming back has been goin' around and the boys back there didn't know if your ship was . . ."

"That's enough talk, Nathaniel. We're terribly sorry for the mistake Agent Rouge, but you know the emergency protocol."

"Yeah, shoot first, questions later," Rouge stated dryly.

"Are you hurt?" Nathaniel asked.

"No sweetie, I'm fine. But why are you on emergency status? I didn't see any reason for it on the way over," she asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Well, Agent Rouge that's because you hadn't arrived yet," Hawthorn said calmly, the low hum of helicopters approaching in the distance.

"I hadn't arrived . . ." Rouge's voice hitched as realization hit her. This was some kind of trap. The two soldiers remained silent.

"Oh man, I hate the government," she groaned. The white bat stepped back and tried to fly off before whatever unseen danger took place, but a net from above cut off her escape. Rouge barely had time to contemplate her lost freedom as an immediate electric pulse was run through the wired mesh. She cried out, before going silent.

Amy's first instinct was to run out and bash the two officers in the head, but bright spotlights overhead snapped on, illuminating the area in a harsh white glow, blinding her. The helicopters were beating air down on them all with lines were being lowered. To help Rouge, the pink hedgehog would only get one shot. As the marching of more soldiers could be heard, she rushed forward with her hammer out and ready.

Her shouts of attack took the two G.U.N. officers by surprise for a moment. They stepped back, but something didn't seem right to Amy. She swung her hammer in a wide sweep, batting them away.

"We are out of here," she breathed as she bent down and removed the snare from her fallen companion. The pink hedgehog proceeded to pick up Rouge and sling the unconscious bat over her shoulder. She took off running back into the trees, hearing the sound of copper blades and angry shouts behind her. Fear was rising with each burdened step. She didn't know where she was or how far she needed to go for help. She didn't know why these people wanted to capture Rouge or why they were chasing her now. What was supposed to be a safe question and answer mission had now morphed into a crisis.

She didn't think she could keep this pace up for long or outrun her pursuers for that matter. Her numb senses however, still had enough perception to tell her that she still had her phone clenched in the other hand. She held down the number one . . .

"Ah," Amy cried out as she tripped over something thrust into her path. Rouge tumbled a few feet away from her in one direction, her phone in another. She turned back to see a rope being lowered back down and two silhouettes standing up from the darkened backdrop of search lights.

"We were ready for you too, Miss Rose."

Amy scrambled to reach the phone but felt sharp pain move over her entire body before everything went black.

_**o**_

As expected, Sonic reached the end of the wrecked woods first, followed closely by his companions. What they saw over the horizon was the last thing any of them expected. In complete ruin rested a massive structure resembling a warehouse, stretching out for what seemed like miles. There was blown out metal siding, bowing support beams and buckling roof cavities. But what shocked the three heroes most was plastered to the side of the building. The partial remains of a familiar logo.

"This . . . is Eggman's," Sonic said in disbelief as he was the first to take steps forward. Knuckles and Tails followed, not too sure on how to respond either. They walked in silence up to the destroyed base and stopped just outside of its once formidable doors.

"I don't get it. Why is it like this?" Knuckles asked as a scowl developed on his face. Tails immediately went to work on his device.

"I . . . I don't understand. The data showed that this area had the most activity in the past two years," the fox expressed worriedly before looking up, "In fact just two days ago it sent out a small fleet."

Sonic felt the weight of dread settle in his stomach. Something about this was wrong, very wrong. Was this a trap?

"Maybe he's trying to trick us guys. This could just be a cover for something underground," he stated, pushing further into the base. The hedgehog's eyes raced over everything looking for anything, but deep down in his gut he knew this wasn't right.

"I don't like it," Knuckles said reluctantly, "I thought you said there's some wave activity going on around here?"

"There is, but it's not making any sense you guys. My readings still can't pinpoint an exact location, but there is nothing coming from this place," Tails replied.

"Well, figure something out," the echidna stressed.

"I'm trying!"

The trio spent a few minutes walking through the remains of what use to be one of the doctor's many bases of operation. There were charred shells of robots, broken computer consoles and coats of dust and debris on every surface. The more destruction seen the more bewildering the situation became. Finally the fox broke the quiet.

"Sonic?"

The blue hedgehog turned around at the sound of distress in his young friend's voice.

"What is it?"

"I . . . I think you were right. We aren't dealing with Eggman."

"What are you talking about Tails?" Knuckles asked in agitation. Sonic quickly hushed him.

"What do you mean?" he asked as he walked over to the fox. He could see the paleness in the genius' features and felt that weight in his stomach double.

"Sonic, I don't think we've been dealing with Eggman for a long time. This place wasn't destroyed just a few days ago," Tails said shakily as he held up crumbled slips of yellow paper, "It's been years."

The blue hero slowly reached out and took the papers from his friend's hand and allowed his eyes to scan over the contents. It was filled with various designs and schemes but what caught the speedster's attention and held it was the date at the bottom of the page . . . for three years ago. He lowered the paper and looked at Tails before closing his eyes and turning to walk out.

"I don't get this. How are we not fighting Eggman . . . I mean we, it's got to be him!" Knuckles exasperated, not able to wrap his mind around this fact. But as the guardian really looked around he could see that the debris had been there for a while, resembling some of the ruins on his island.

"Knuckles, all these papers and calendars . . ." Tails exclaimed as he began lifting several tousled pieces of paper off the floor, "they're years old!"

"Well how does an army come from this . . . !"

"It is . . . I mean there was . . . I don't know! The diagrams all pointed to this place!"

"Maybe you got it wrong!" the echidna vented, trying to still piece this back to the wicked scientist.

"I did not. My estimates were correct! The information must have been wrong. Shadow might have downloaded old material."

"Look, it could be a trick. Eggman has been sending robots with his mug all over them, not to mention all those recordings . . . he has. . ." the echidna paused.

"Exactly, recordings! None of us have actually seen Dr. Eggman in years," Tails stated bitterly.

"Except for me and even that was like for a second. I have to admit this is a little strange, but I still think Eggy is in play," Sonic said calmly with his back to them.

"What do we do Sonic?" Tails asked.

"Don't know yet, but we've wasted enough time here that's for sure. I say we head to another one of those bases you have there and see if there's a pattern to all this or if it's just a fluke."

Knuckles and Tails nodded when the fox's cell phone rang, followed closely by the hedgehog's.

**Author's Notes: Sorry about the killer cliffhanger, but that's just how I see this chapter ending. Thanks again for all the reviews and favorites on this story, it's a good encouragement to continue. I am working on chapter 13 and hope to have it finished soon. **


	13. Chapter 13

**In Due Season**

Chapter XIII

_Moments are Realized, Mysteries Revealed_

Shadow and Blaze had come to an understanding. They would search for the Chaos Emeralds together, but once the seven gems were located and retrieved he would go his separate way. Part of the feline wasn't pleased with her partner's plans of deserting her once the task was complete, but another part felt relief at the prospect. Shadow wasn't the easiest to get along with. However, she saw the necessity in having his assistance in securing a way back home to her kingdom so if she had to put up with Mr. Personality during the process, so be it.

For him, Shadow would have much rather liked Rouge's accompaniment for this mission; not just because of his slight affections towards the government agent but because they genuinely worked well together. The princess had already proven to be a pain, both in the figurative and literal sense of the word. Still, her words last night echoed through his minds ear: 'If they trust you, then so do I'. They all needed his help. For whatever reason he agreed to the lunacy and, with no small amount of effort on his part, Shadow would continue on with Blaze to find the Emeralds.

"Has it picked up anything yet?" the dark hedgehog asked as he came along side the purple feline. They both intently stared at the device Tails entrusted to Blaze alone; a precaution insisted upon by Solana.

"No. It's like they vanished. Maybe we should double-back and see if we can't pick up a stronger signal," Blaze stated, looking to her companion. Shadow closed his eyes.

"This is a complete waste of time. I'm heading north . . ." he started, turning in said direction. Blaze looked affronted. Was he already deserting her?

"What?! But the emeralds, we still need to find them," Blaze exclaimed. She watched as the dark hedgehog stopped; his back to her.

"I don't offer assistance lightly feline and I intend to keep my word about helping to find the Chaos Emeralds," he said coldly before facing her. "I'm merely suggesting we head in the direction of known Eggman bases," he added with a sneer. Blaze's features hardened as she just barely kept her temper at a simmer. How was she supposed to know that?

"My apologies, hedgehog. I'll try harder to put your past behavior in perspective. By all means led on," she said in spite. He didn't choose to answer and instead turned and started skating off fast. He knew Blaze was fully capable of keeping up. She gave a frustrated growl at the sudden departure, but quickly took off after him.

The two traveled at high speeds along an old service road through the countryside, making minimal communication queues as possible. Finally, Shadow came to a stop with Blaze a few steps behind. Resting before them was a dilapidated four story building; about the size of a standard apartment complex. The princess came closer, glancing to the hedgehog for guidance. The puzzled look on his face didn't offer much in the way of direction.

"What is it?" she asked, jolting him out of his thoughts.

"This base, it was in operation as a refueling station little more than a year ago. I scouted it out once for Gun . . . maybe it's of little consequence, but it's strange," he voiced, moving forward, cautiously. Blaze followed in like fashion.

_Beep beep beep_. They both looked down to the tracking device.

"Shadow, it's an Emerald, but that means . . ." Blaze began, concern lighting up her eyes.

"I know," he interrupted, scanning the area for movement. Not wanting to disappointment, their metallic foe showed up in the form of tearing through the building's corroding doors; splinters of rusted metal sent flying in every direction. The gut wrenching sound of the robot's howl followed. The pair stepped back from the entrance, shielding their eyes and ears from the assault.

"Get back!" Shadow shouted, pulling her away from near impalement as the creature swatted at them with one of its hooked arms. He released her and they both moved again, Blaze springing back in one direction, Shadow sprinting off in the other. The feline tucked the tracker carefully away before looking up and noticing . . .

"This one's eye is fixed, do you see that?"

Shadow glanced up and saw the glass-like orb intact on its front. Obviously someone had fixed it, but they were out in the middle of nowhere and this place certainly wasn't in service. He watched as the eye flashed green and focused on him. He took a step back and immediately cursed himself for doing so, but he couldn't help it. The feeling in the pit of his stomach was dread and for good reason. The only weak point was a 12 inch in diameter circle on its head while the rest of this monster was built like a tank and moved like a racecar. How were they going to get at it?

"Listen, we need to find a way to take out that eye," he yelled, not even having enough time to get Alyson's gun out. Blaze watched as the large metal creature engaged the hedgehog in a deadly dance of survival on the latter's part. She tried to draw its attention with a few fire attacks but it was as if it wasn't even interested in the fact that there were two opponents.

Shadow cried out as he was slammed against a nearby tree. He quickly got back to his feet but was soon knocked back to the ground by another blow. As the relentless beating took place Blaze's mind raced through possible options and resources she had available to her to help him. In turning back to the building's entrance, she glimpsed an idea.

Quickly, she dashed to the broken doors.

"Shadow, I have a plan! Lead it inside here!" she shouted to him, before disappearing into the darkness of the structure. The hedgehog, who was feeling the soreness from both new and previous injuries, wasted no time in jumping on board with any proposal. He bolted for the warehouse, sensing his enemy's presence a hair behind him. Once he reached the threshold, Blaze became visible from her position in the middle of the facility; her demeanor calm, but determined.

For his part, Shadow didn't know quite where this plan was headed. He made for her, but was stopped by the feline's outstretched hand. She pointed for him to go left, which he did in an instant just as the robot barreled in after him. It outpaced him by several yards, but quickly turned to resume pursuit.

"What are we doing?" Shadow shouted as he began to run, duck and weave around large tanks of fuel and low hanging pipes. He could hear the robot busting through said tanks and pipes. This place was a death trap; one spark and . . . Ah, so that was it. His train of thought began to run along the same vein as hers.

"Power over flames has its advantages. If you can tangle it up enough, I can take care of the rest."

"Got it."

It only took moments for the black hedgehog to have the overly vicious machine wedged between two vats. It wouldn't hold long, but it gave him enough time to come up next to Blaze who nodded in the direction of the exit.

"We're going to want to get as far away as we can," she stated, sprinting off. Shadow caught her meaning and took off after her. As they ran he could see his shadow elongate from the flash of light behind him, trailed closely by the sound of an exploding inferno. He kept his eyes forward, on Blaze, matching her pace as she began to slow down. She stopped, he stopped. She turned, he didn't. Their sights met. Blaze smiled, her eyes shining with the recent victory and glow of her abilities. Shadow held back all show of emotion except the heat radiating from his cheeks. He quickly turned around, away from her to look at the burning base. He attributed his rise in temperature to that.

"I wonder if that did the trick, so to speak," Blaze voiced as she came up next to Shadow to survey the damage also. The ultimate life form shifted his weight forward a bit.

"There's only one way to find out," he replied starting back for the debris. The lavender cat followed suit. Once they reached the base, Blaze blew back the lingering flames to allow them passage to the structure. It took some searching, but Shadow finally locked eyes onto what was left of the mangled robot.

"I expected nothing less," Blaze said with a small smile of satisfaction as she reached into her pocket and pulled out the tracking device.

"I must admit, your approach was very . . . effective," Shadow stated turning his back to her. The words sounded tight to her, as if it took a lot of thought and effort for him to say that, but he meant it. For not being a 'team player' he was sure a lot more supportive than she originally anticipated. It was both a point of suspicion and remorse for her; Sonic's mantra on the power of friendship playing through her mind. Maybe Shadow wasn't as antisocial as she was at one time, just distant. She might be misjudging him all together. If Sonic could work with this withdrawn comrade maybe she could too.

"Yes, well if it weren't for you suggesting this place to start with we wouldn't have found our opportunity of finding another emerald," she said genuinely. To her surprise, Shadow turned in her direction and gave the briefest of smiles. She didn't believe she ever saw him smile sense she met him and given his personality it didn't seem like something he did often. She felt herself grin back as he began searching for the said emerald and she didn't stop smiling as she turned to do the same. The two rummaged around in the rubble, taking care not to burn themselves on the scorched wreckage.

"I wonder why this one was traveling alone." Shadow mused.

"I don't know, but it seems Tails' theory about them being after you holds some truth."

"Yes and that confirms my thoughts that they're not the doctor's creations. If these belonged to him he would have made a seventh to contain them all, but more than likely he would have used them in a grander scheme than this."

"You would know better than I," Blaze said as she continued to comb the ruins.

"I believe I've found what we've been looking for," Shadow said with a frown as he bent down into some of the remains and pulled out a shiny white gemstone. Blaze jogged over and looked at the Emerald he was holding and then to his disappointed face.

"What is it? What's wrong?" she asked.

"Huh? Nothing, just . . ." he held his tongue, turning to her slightly, "What time did we leave this morning. Do you remember?"

Blaze was caught off guard by the question and change in subject, but decided to humor the train of thought.

"We left around seven-thirty I think. Why do you ask?"

"I need to make a call. Here," he said, handing her the Chaos Emerald. Blazed looked on in puzzlement as he walked away from her pulling out a phone. She allowed him his privacy but couldn't help but over hear his frustrations as he appeared to dial and redial a number. He kept using phrases like 'Pick up' and 'Why isn't she picking up' quietly to himself. Finally after five minutes he came back over to Blaze wearing an even more upset face.

"Is there something wrong?" she asked again.

"Yes, there is. I need to go . . . and check in with someone."

"What!? You're leaving? We just found a Chaos Emerald and the other five might be close to follow," Blaze stated angrily. Maybe she trusted him to soon.

"I understand, but this is something I must do now."

"You said you don't offer assistance lightly, but here you are about to abandon me in the middle of a mission that will help this planet a great deal," she said with thunder in her voice.

"And your own I presume," Shadow said calmly. Blaze glowered.

"Yes, that too."

"I have other priorities and promises to keep. This doesn't rank at the top of them. The emeralds have been missing for years and I have successfully helped in gathering two over the past 26 hours. I believe that is assistance enough for now."

"Priorities! I have an entire kingdom dependant on my presence and my only way of returning to it is through these gems; not to mention the peril this world seems to be in without the aid of them," Blaze stated firmly, holding up the jewel.

"I think you can locate the rest on your own . . ."

"Maybe I can," Blaze said quietly, tempted to take him up on that offer. She was strongly independent by nature and confident in her abilities. However, past lessons in her life gave her wisdom to know help at this time was vital. "But that's not the point. It doesn't guarantee success in retrieving them. At least give me the decency of knowing what is more important."

"I don't need to explain anything," he said curtly, walking away from her.

_Crunch. _

He turned back to see she was following.

"If you won't tell me, then I'll go with you," she said sternly. He gritted his teeth. Why did this female have to be so difficult? Rouge would have allowed him to walk off, no questions asked.

"That isn't necessary . . ."

"Listen, you want me to find the Chaos Emeralds on my own. Fine, but the best way for me to do that is to stay close to you. Those robots are looking for you after all and the Sol Emeralds seem to respond better in your presence. So, lead on," Blaze said with a smirk.

**o **

Alyson tried to ignore the dull throbbing against her skull that had developed hours ago, but it was the rope burns on her arms and legs that caused her to groan in agony. Bray looked up from his newspaper and took note of the woman's pained expression. He cast his eyes downward in a look of pity. The gesture didn't go unnoticed by the human.

"Sorry, but I have a bit of a headache. It might have been from when they crashed my car," Alyson said quietly. She didn't know whether her guard had any real empathy for her or not, but he appeared to sink even lower into his chair. With that little sign of emotion from the badger, she decided to continue the conversation. "I know you can't tell me anything about this . . ." she said glancing around to emphasis the situation.

"No I can't," Bray said dryly as he looked back up at her, "Like I've said for the hundredth time already."

Despite herself, Alyson lightly laughed at the snarky remark and to her surprise saw the quick smile on her capturer's face. Was he trying to brighten her mood or was it just an offhanded remark?

"But could you ask someone about these ropes. I don't want to be a bother but they're starting to cut off my circulation and . . ." However, before she could continue the badger placed his reading material down and stood up stiffly. He placed one gloved hand behind his ear and gave it a good scratch before he started heading for the stairs. Alyson quirked an eyebrow at his change in behavior.

"Where are you going? I thought you couldn't leave your post or something," she whispered, though she wasn't sure why. Bray stopped for a moment and turned his gaze back on her.

"I am allowed to take a break sister, but while I'm at it aspirin or ibuprofen?"

The human lifted her head up in confusion.

"What?" she questioned.

"For that headache of yours; would you like aspirin or ibuprofen?" he asked again. This time Alyson's expression of confusion melted down to a small smile.

"I'll take aspirin if you don't mind."

"Not at all lady," Bray smiled back as he continued on to climb up the stairs. The middle aged woman let out a discouraged sigh. She was no closer to figuring out any answers like where she was or why she was there and it didn't appear that she would be getting them anytime soon. On the other hand though, it did appear that her capture had warmed up to her a bit more and that could be a good thing.

Bray came back down after a few minutes with a Styrofoam cup and a balled fist. Alyson watched as he set the cup down next to her bared door and brought out a set of keys. He opened the cell in one fluid motion, like he had done this hundreds of times before. For some reason this fact seemed to stick out as ominous to Alyson. The badger reached back down and picked up the container before stepping into the dimly lit room.

"Listen, you've been tied up for a while . . ." Bray said quietly, his eyes shifting from side to side. Alyson was surprised by the amount of nervous concern in the other's voice. She wondered briefly if he would get in trouble for this. However, the badger's voice regained its indifferent nuances. "They said the ropes aren't necessary at this point so I can loosen em up for ya."

"That would be nice, thanks," Alyson said softly, unsure of what to make of the situation. She noticed that Bray's eyes wandered once again to a corner of the cell. She decided to look over to what he seemed to be alluding to. There was nothing that she could see so she turned back to look at him. The badger had dropped the contents of his right hand into the cup of water resulting in an effervescent reaction. He then reached out his free hand with claws extended and cut one of the ropes, releasing her right arm. She looked at him in disbelief.

"Here take this," he said nonchalantly, handing her the cup of medicine. She took it slowly and questioned whether she should drink it or not.

"How do I know this isn't poison or something?" she asked with incrimination in her voice.

"You really don't, but if it makes a difference it's not," Bray said flatly. Alyson sighed, giving the badger a sharp glare. Well, she had a killer headache and that whether it was poison or aspirin, the pain would be gone soon either way. She tilted her head back and downed the cup. Upon looking back down she noticed that Bray had walked back over to the door. "You can go ahead and untie yourself if you want."

She looked down at her free hand and gave the facial equivalent to a shrug. Abandoning the cup to the floor she began to work the rope off her left hand and then soon her abdomen and ankles. Before long she was finally up and out of the chair. She glanced over to Bray who had decided to take up his newspaper again in the corner. At her full height, he seemed smaller and less intimidating, but considering she was 5 foot 7 and he was just shy of 4 feet that was understandable. But instead of going up to the bars of the cell her eyes were drawn back to the spot Bray had seemed to allude to earlier.

As if drawn by an invisible string she began to make her way over to the corner, the badger's gaze leaving the paper momentarily to follow her as she did so for a bit, before returning downward. Her steps echoed off the stone floor, every footfall like the last until she reached the wall. One of the rock fixtures sounded hollow when she placed weight on it. She looked over at Bray, who was still turning pages of his reading material, before looking back down at the offending slate. Bending down she touched the tile and noticed it was loose. Was this what he was trying to show her?

"Bray, I don't understand . . ." she began to whisper until the badger let out a soft shush. He didn't look up from his paper, but nodded in the direction of the camera. Alyson knew what he meant. Lucky for her the spot she was squatted at was just out of the camera's view. Maybe it had been set up that way.

She turned back down to the floor and placed her fingers in between the grooves of stone. It lifted a bit and she was able to get enough leverage to tilt it up and out. The smell of damp earth is what she sensed first followed by the gritty feeling of dirt on her hands, but what she saw at the bottom of the hole dug out underneath was unanticipated.

**Author's Note: Yeah, I'm still working on this story, though it has been a several months since I updated. I was really trying too keep it up to one update a month too. Oh well, if you are still reading I hope you enjoy this chapter. :)**


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